


Clocktower

by Mongol



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:06:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 46,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9577418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mongol/pseuds/Mongol
Summary: Surrounded by her foes, Luviagelita Edelfelt prepares for war. Her resolve is shaken when old family history surfaces - Tohsaka Rin arrives to the Clocktower. No longer tied to Fuyuki and the Grail War, Rin seeks her place in the world. Neither is as cold-blooded as they think.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a more serious take on the pairing that I've been writing material for. It's actually fairly old in the sense that I've been working on it intermittently for the better part of a year. Since I've been staring at it for so long, I can't really say if it's any good or not. Hopefully some of you will offer me feedback in that regard. This fic will also make use of OCs in supporting roles. I would've preferred having canon characters to work with, but the Clocktower setting is too underdeveloped to be usable otherwise.

”Why tomorrow? Of all the days, why tomorrow?” Luviagelita Edelfelt picked up one slide of paper after the another off the table, laying them down and then picking one up again. A single teacup sat as a paperweight on top of the most important one, with the rest spread around in a disorganised mess.

A man stood on the other side of her table. Tall, fit, his face marked by the first signs of aging. Luvia placed the paper in the her hand down and lifted her gaze up to him. ”What do you think, Nagaev?”

”I believe it is unrelated,” he said confidently.

”It might have been, but no longer. We must account for it, even if it isn't a plot.”

”I can arrange for her to be eliminated the moment she arrives. Personally, if you insist.”

”Eliminated?" Luvia leaned backwards. "That is somewhat excessive, is it not?”

”It is the safest solution.”

”And the permanent one. That worries me. Nothing about it smells like a plot. Like the airline tickets...” She turned her head back down to the papers strewn about her desk to search for the paper containing the details of the transaction. Nagaev tapped his finger on the relevant slip. ”Ah. In any case, you have read these yourself. Airline tickets purchased in her own name. Economy class. No false identification. Paid for with an easily traceable account and no precautions of any kind. Awfully conspicious.”

”The highest chance of being noticed. It could be intentional.”

”I am not so certain. It feels… off, but not in a malicious way. Could it be that she is doing this in good faith?”

”I wouldn't count on it.”

”Neither would I, but…” she lifted the teacup off the most important slip and raised it up as she took a sip of her tea. Few people looked menacing in their passport photos and Tohsaka Rin looked truly innocent in hers. Could the girl truly be so naive as to travel in economy class on her own identification and without any attempt at deception? Was she trying to be noticed? ”No. Eliminating her would be an overreaction. We cannot say what she is up to. Not in the slightest.”

”Close surveillance, then?”

”I will meet her in person and question her. Arrange for it. It has to be a coincidence that she is arriving tomorrow. We would have noticed her if they had tried to slip her to the country in a more clandestine manner like the two yesterday. Have they been dealt with?”

”Von Anhalt is tracking them.”

”Excellent. He never lets go when he gets the scent.” Luvia smelled her tea and sipped it again.” Tohsaka Rin, though... this an odd time for family history to bubble up to the surface. I would have liked to have more of a warning. Certainly it was inevitable that she would arrive at the Clocktower some day, but why now, of all the possible times?”

”Why not? For her it is as good a time as any.”

”How? How can she not know?" Luvia slowly shook her head. "Is Japan too far for rumours to reach there? You have been there, correct?”

Nagaev closed his eyes and turned towards the side. ”Yes. Before your succession. I was sent by… your father to study the aftermath of the fourth ritual.”

”After the previous Lord El-Melloi's death.”

”His and a number of others. We predicted several deaths, but his was not considered likely. The Fuyuki ritual is… was a chaotic affair. Insignificant and hidden from the world, but bloody. No lineages of note reside there or in the rest of Japan. No sites of interest. It could be that Tohsaka Rin never considered the political situation at the Clocktower. Being involved in the bloodshed must have been more than enough to occupy her time and interest.”

”Certainly. Then there is the fact of her father's early death. Her training might have gone unfinished.” Luvia examined the photos again. The first shot was from about ten years ago when Rin had suddenly become the nominal head of the family. Placed next to a picture of her father the resemblance was clear. Ten years later she had outgrown most that resemblance. Only the blue eyes remained. ”Did you meet her when you made your survey of the area?”

”I saw her. The photos are accurate.”

”Is that all you know? You had no opportunity to follow her closely?”

”None.”

”Then that is all we know of her. Not enough.” Luvia ran her finger on her eyebrow. The photo of Rin in her hand, taken after the conclusion of the most recent conflict, showed a young woman with dark hair and pale skin. In another photo, the most recent one, she had outgrown yet another part of herself. The childish twintails were missing. Her clothing took a more mature character. Luvia could see the weight of responsibility fall on her shoulders.

”Quite the resemblance, isn't it?” Nagaev asked.

Luvia twitched back to the present at the question. ”Oh. Yes, with her father. Very much so. In any case, you were right to suggest elimination, but I have decided against it. Even if an old vendetta is the last thing that I need to rear its ugly head now, I will sanction no move against her. Instead, I will question her as she arrives. Have it arranged.”

”I will, my Lady. Anything else?”

”Order a reassessment of all Mages of secondary importance. We cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard by the appearance of some other mage we have underestimated like her.”

”Have we underestimated her?”

”She lives. That is proof enough that we have. See to the arrangements for tomorrow.”

”I will, my Lady.”

”Thank you.”

Luvia stood up from her chair and took the newest photograph in hand as Nagaev left her study. She paced about her study and settled by her window gazing at the endless drizzle outside. The mansion was an old country house, taken bloodily from some lordling whose name had fallen from the pages of history. An Edelfelt long ago had found it pleasing to the eye and that had been reason enough. As the first bit of spoils her family had taken in England, it remained their fortress, sanctuary and seat of power in that part of the world, even if their power and influence had long since outstripped the comparatively diminituve size it had.

She stared at the photo again, bringing back to her mind the development of a child into a young woman stricken by the weight of responsibility. That the Tohsakas could bear an heiress as dangerous as Rin deeply concerned Luvia. They were a meaningless family, tied to a meaningless ritual in a distant periphery. The only reason Luvia paid any attention to the family was an embarassing chapter in the otherwise illustrious history of the Edelfelt family. Yet, Rin was one of them. If such potential could slip through by without being noticed, far more dangerous mages must have gone unnoticed as well. Luvia's stomach twisted at the thought.

Could the Edelfelt's many enemies, poring through folders full of information on their adversary, see such an arc for her as well? Did they see a monster to strike down? Yes, responsibility smothered her at times, but that had been decided as her part long since. Nothing could have changed it. Being born with so much potential and being taught so much ambition had made her one of the youngest family heads in centuries. That was the problem.

Tradition. Such a simple thing, yet there were so many opinions as to what it meant, opinions divisive enough to spill blood over. Disputes someone as young as her couldn't possibly understand. After the first assassin, so no longer tried to. The second she killed with her own hands.

Nagaev was right to suggest eliminating Tohsaka Rin. The last thing she needed now was a family vendetta to upset her concentration and plans. Just over 70 years ago, during the Third Fuyuki Ritual, Charlotta and Eleanora Edelfelt had taken part in the struggle for that ”Grail,” whatever it was, if it even existed. Eleanora never returned. It would have been simplest to kill Tohsaka Rin and settle the debt. Neither Luvia nor Rin had a choice in being born into a family vendetta, but now Luvia felt that she had another option. Maybe the Tohsaka girl could be used, perhaps even turned into an ally. An unknown factor to upset the equation. Luvia sensed no threat from the her. Only an opportunity.

Contingency plans existed for whichever method of infiltration Rin would choose. Thorough and detailed plans, just not thorough enough. Somewhere along the line, nobody had considered the possibility that Tohsaka Rin might choose to board a flight in the early hours of the morning with a seat in the economy class and make no attempt at concealing herself. Either the girl was a born trickster or the biggest fool to ever have considered enrolling at the Clocktower. Whichever was the case, Luvia knew she would at least have see what kind of person this Tohsaka Rin was. What would Rin think of her? Would Rin even know her? Tohsaka Tokiomi and Aoi had died so suddenly that Rin might never have heard the details on how her family had gained their proficiency in magecraft. Maybe the family didn't much care to remember how. Of one thing Luvia was sure – there was no killer hiding behind those blue eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

”I don't want him distracting my students.” Waver Velvet, the second Lord El-Melloi, folded his arms and leaned heavily backwards in his chair. The antique wood creaked under the tall but slender man. Even in his new suit the he appeared at best haphazard, weak and slightly famished. The only part of his body that he seemed to take any care of was his long and dark hair that he then proceeded to ruin by forever tainting it with cigarette smoke.

”Not only would he frighten the students, but he unnerves me as well,” he continued.

Luviagelita Edelfelt sat on her side of the heavy desk that stood in the middle of his diminutive office. The lack of space was worsened by the addition of several shelves' worth of literature. He was a respected man, but in the Clocktower, being respected and receiving a reasonably spacious office were two different things entirely. Luvia let her gaze wander around, checking if she could recognize any new tomes. ”The presence of a highly esteemed mage frightens you?”

”He's your watchdog, as much a warden as a protector. I will not have him present in my lectures.”

Luvia gave him a condescending look. ”If you were to be to be assaulted by one of your students, say, a third-generation mage of middling talents, would you be able to defend yourself?”

He turned his head away and scowled, his left hand rummaging through the pockets for the comfort of a cigarette.

”As I thought. A number mages with old names want you dead, my dear tutor. As much as you like to retreat into the company of dusty old tomes and newer publications alike, you have made an impressive number of enemies in the last few years.”

”All I do is teach.”

”Precisely. If you wish to keep drawing breath and teaching, you will have to get used to Von Anhalt's presence.”

”That, or you could consider not starting a war for my sake. Besides, half of his neck is missing.”

”Only a fifth or so, and that war is already being fought. Would you like to see the list of my casualties?”

Lord El-Melloi shook his head and rolled a cigarette between his fingers. ”You could at least tell him to not show it off.”

”He used to be a handsome man, and would still be, were he vain enough to cover it up.”

”All the more reason for you to tell him to.”

”You misunderstand. When a man in one's service has been disfigured for life, he has earned a few privileges. He will watch over you overtly for a week or two, long enough for the message to be understood. After that, someone else will take over. Discreetly.”

”Tch.” He lifted the cigarette to his lips and lit it. ”Anything else? Can't see why you would have bothered to come otherwise.”

”There is. But first...” Luvia lifted a small wooden box onto the table and pushed it halfway over. ”Now that my patronage of you is to become official, I believe a small bonus is in order.”

Lord El-Melloi took the box and slowly opened it with his tumbs rested against both sides of the lid. He took a drag of his cigarette and snuffed it out on the exquisite ashtray on his desk. The sight and scent of tobacco breathed new life into the lethargic man and he quickly reached for a cutter tucked away in the drawers. ”Dominican?” he asked, holding one of the cigars, which was as thick as his thumb, up to his nose.

”Yes.”

”You're not in the habit of handing out unearned bonuses. If whoever you want me to tutor is as much trouble as the last one, you can have these back.”

”I believe she will be quite easy to handle.”

”She?” He set his elbows down on the desk with a cigar held between his digits. ”When can I expect her?”

”Soon enough. It should not take long to convince her.”

”You mean...”

”She is unaware, yes. You expressed such concern over the appearance of your own bodyguard, but you will find her to be much more pleasant in that regard. Her name is Tohsaka Rin. I believe you have met her father.”

”Tohsaka… from Fuyuki?” Lord El-Melloi slammed the lid of the box shut and pushed it right back at Luvia over the table.

Luvia caught the box halfway, sliding it easily backwards against the lacking strength of his arm. ”I understand you had a stake in her father's death.”

”None.”

”Really?” Luvia tilted her head. ”I thought you were-”

”I took part in the war, yes, but I had nothing to do with her father's death. I don't know who was responsible.”

”I understand. She might not. In any case, is it not only proper that you continue her education from where her father left it?” Luvia stood up from her chair and extended her hand for him. ”I will send Von Anhalt to you in a few days time. Stay safe, professor. I would not want to stake my life and name on a fool.”

He shook her hand and a wry grin spread to his face. ”I'm more worried that you'll send me yet another moron.”

”Not everyone can be blessed with your caustic character,” Luvia said and laughed.

-

Crowds didn't faze Rin, who had lived her life in one of the most densely-populated countries on Earth. But, for the first time, she heard a dozen languages being spoken by hundreds of different people. She had always imagined the hallways and classrooms of the Clocktower to have more of the qualities of a dignified temple, academy or monastery to them, rather than the bazaar-like cosmopolitan city that it presented itself to her as.

All around her, as she trailed a male student assigned to show her the short but confusing way to her dormitory room, Rin heard languages she didn't understand, spoken by people of foreign origins that eluded her.

”Over here,” the student said and took a sudden right.

Rin almost missed his turn as the students lining the hallways stole her attention. She followed him to a smaller hallway and found him leaning against a door. He was pale and blonde, showing an European ancestry that Rin couldn't pinpoint.

”Here's the key,” he said and tossed it at her. ”Check if it works.”

Rin caught the key right before it smashed against her face. She dropped her suitcase own and checked if the door would open. It did. She stepped inside and checked around. A bed, a desk, and a tiny bathroom with a shower. Considering the size of the room, the window felt like a luxury. ”It looks fine. Thanks for the help.”

”Anything else?”

”Uh, know where the...” Rin closed her eyes and ran two fingers on her brow as she thought of the correct English term. ”…the talent-screening tests are held?”

”Sure,” he nodded and took a single step away, turning his side to Rin in the doorway. ”Just follow the rest of the slants around.”

”Slants?”

He smirked at her, almost laughed, and then disappeared away, leaving behind a confused Rin. It took her long enough to realize the insult that she knew him to be long gone by the time she did. She smashed her fist against the edge of her table and sat down on her bed, fuming with anger.

Of course. Chink, gook, rice nigger and so forth. She'd expected it, but the fact that the most amicable treatment of her day so far had come from a supposed family enemy was grinding her patience down in a manner that she'd thought only Kirei and Shinji were capable of. Both were dead, though not by her hand. The next one to try her patience would be.

Rin still wanted to blame Luvia for having so thoroughly ambushed her. Being so readily caught unawares had Rin feeling dumber than she had ever since that one episode of not having shifted the clocks correctly. Luvia could have just asked nicely, but Rin reminded herself that mages – like a great many other people without their skills – never asked nicely.

She took out her anger by breaking out her luggage and stuffing it in her drawers in a manner that still somewhat resembled order. As unsettling as Luvia's interrogation had been, she had at least provided Rin with a comfortable ride to the Clocktower, helping Rin make it to the Clocktower on schedule without having to risk being swallowed and chewed up by the public transportation system of a foreign capital.

Who was Luviagelita Edelfelt? The name was familiar to her as a prominent, respectable name with centuries of bloody and prominent history behind it, but all that history had taken place on foreign shores, far away from Fuyuki and Rin's secluded life. Had Rin not been so embarassingly ambushed by her, Luviagelita Edelfelt would be nothing more than a name on a page.

Done unloading her luggage, Rin immediately headed back, doing her best to recall the route they had taken. The Clocktower was a complex of considerable size and trying to disguise just how lost and confounded she felt was a fool's errand. Reluctantly, she took the student's advice and followed the first Asian student she ran into. It made sense. Like her, every Asian hopeful without a letter of recommendation would be run through the wringer.

Having finally found the correct classroom, Rin settled in to the back of a lengthy line and leaned against the wall, dropping her handbag down beside her and sighing wearily. The jet lag hadn't quite hit her yet, but she dreaded that she'd collapse with fatigue just before the lengthy test ahead of her.

A few pairs, one group even, had begun conversing while waiting up in the line. How exactly did mages even talk to each other? Unsure, Rin yawned, more loudly than politeness would have allowed, but she realized that only afterwards and took a nervous look around to see if anyone had paid attention.

”Were you out late last night too?” Asked the female student behind Rin.

“No.” Rin turned around and shook her head nervously. The other girl was just a bit taller than Rin, her hair dark and skin just slightly tanned. “I only got here today. Uh, you mean, people were out the night before the exam?”

“Sure. It's not like it matters.” The girl smiled wearily and tilted her head, looking to the side. ”Everyone who has to go through here goes to Modern Magecraft Theories anyway. You just arrived, right? Well, you do look like it. Didn't they assign you anyone to show you around?”

“Only to show me my room. I guess they didn't think my name was worth more.” Rin grit her teeth and looked off to the side.

“What would it be?”

“Sorry?”

“Your name, silly.”

“Oh. I'm Tohsaka Rin. Japanese.”

“Japanese? No wonder they left you by yourself. I'm Andrea.” She extended her arm for a handshake. “Last name's not even worth mentioning.”

“What are you doing here though? I mean, you're not...”

“Smart and motivated like the rest of this sorry bunch?” Andrea shrugged her shoulders, as if expecting a laugh from Rin. “Yeah, I get what you mean, but more Europeans come through here than they like to admit.”

“They?”

“The ones who can afford buy a letter of recommendation or… oh!” She peeked over Rin's shoulder as the line suddenly moved forwards.

Rin wasn't sure whether she should be thankful for being saved from the talkative girl or feel worried that she might lose contact with the one and only person who didn't insist on treating her like a piece of trash.

Andrea made that decision for her by gripping Rin's shoulder. “Wait for me once you get out. I'll tell you all about it over some coffee, okay?”

“Ah, yeah, sure.” Rin nodded nervously and followed the line into the lecture hall. She didn't think that Andrea had meant to do so, but those words had wiped all anxiety from Rin's mind. About to be measured in the terms of the one thing she had always aspired for, she felt it might just all be a sham.

-


	3. Chapter 3

Fear obeys the mind. Breathe, remember the forms, and it'll pass.

The meditation cleared her mind, leaving Luvia's intellect free to function, but her body still tightened with dread. The shivers came in brisk, nauseating waves as the motorcade sped forwards in the night.

“I have been through worse, have I not?” she asked.

“Do you need assitance?” Nagaev shifted himself, his body unaffected by the emotion. “Hypnotism?”

“No. I will manage. I must.”

“Your father always refused as well.”

“A lecture on family history is the last thing that helps me at this moment. I know I inherited his flaws.”

“Feeling fear is not the flaw. Refusing aid is.”

“Tch.” Luvia's eyes squeezed tighter shut, the muscles of her face twitching. ”Fear is a weakness. A rogue gene polluting my lineage. Another mistake we can ill afford, one made long before I was born. My blood is filthy enough without this to upset my concentration.”

“A sense of fear leads to caution. Caution leads to patience. Patience leads to wisdom.”

“Are you trying to annoy me in an attempt to distract me? Because if that is what you are doing, then you have succeeded.”

“Von Anhalt feels no fear. You know what that quality has made of him.”

“Tch.” Luvia opened her eyes and let her concentration reconnect her back to her body. She adjusted the shoe on her right foot and spoke up. “Did he follow my order not to kill the two from yesterday?”

“Yes, though he was quite insistent that he should,” Nagaev said.

“Hmph.” Luvia let go of her shoe and righted herself, stretching her back and lifting her head up high with her hands laid in her lap. The sun still shone through the window by her head. The last sharp rays of light fought their way over the horizon. She watched them lose their struggle as gently rolling hills finally hid them from sight. “How much longer?”

“Two minutes.”

Whether it was dignified or not, Luvia wished she could have been behind the wheel herself. Being escorted to danger always felt worse than heading towards it with her head help up high. Anxiety tried for one last time to unsettle her as the vehicle rolled on to a stop past the gate and driveway. She felt the heads turn towards her before she saw them through the darkened windows.

“A moment, please,” she said as Nagaev was about to open the door and step out. Her eyes closed and she breathed calmly with her stomach. A moment to make them wait – make them nervous while you calm yourself.

She opened her eyes and looked at Nagaev. “I am ready.”

Luvia stepped out of her limousine, standing tall at the opening to the palatial gardens. The last light of dusk lit the palace itself in the distance. She allowed herself a brief moment to check her surroundings, just long enough for herself to be noticed, and headed towards the palatial gardens in a confient stride with Nagaev holding the position of honor on her right side.

It is a jealous fiction made up by resentful inferiors that a perfectionist cannot be confident. Armed with the discerning eye of that defining characterstic, Luvia knew how to present herself as a successor to a lineage centuries old. With that same eye she saw the envy and jealousy of those turning their heads to watch her passage. The ones too petty to look were the most jealous of all. She knew their names and lineages whether they acknowledged her presence or not.

Held on nominally neutral ground, these events were an opportunity for Magi to demostrate what they valued the most: the edifices of glory, the petty displays of status, and past achievements jealously guarded. Seeing the facade up close, admiring the beauty, it was easiest to smell the rot hidden behind.

The venue itself was a testament to the lengths which noble families would go to hide their stagnation. The Clocktower nobility held onto manors and palaces like it, hoping that they might lend some of the dignity of those esteemed buildings to their own names. Buildings constructed with new money in centuries past to show off newfound status were now being bought by families desperate to hold on to their own rank and prestige. History was a cruel mistress to those unaware of her deeds.

How Lady Claudia Giuliano had acquired the funds, Luvia didn't know. Bribery, maintaining the image of prestige and stockpiling for an encounter might bankrupt the circle of plotters before they could strike, but Luvia feared that the roots might reach deeper than she had ever suspected. Time was not on her side – not yet.

The number of guests present worried her. They stood divided into two larger blocs and smaller groups of independents and neutrals that huddled by each other – not for protection of their numbers, but to mark their stance by association.

She knew her family had enemies, but to know and to see that number were different things. Lining the gardens were a hundred grudges and opportunistic chances that the Edelfelts had left their mark on. There were few friends and allies she could truly rely upon among the guests.

The only one she could truly depend on stood beside a small fountain that marked the beginning of the no-man's land stretching between the two factions. Von Anhalt raised his hand in greeting and met her gaze with the confidence of one who had proven himself to friend and foe alike, presenting the mutilated side of his neck. The wounds had a strange hue to them, almost a glow in the dying light. Bits of flesh were missing as if gnashed away by teeth. Whether claws, teeth, blades or curses had seared the skin and torn away the side of his neck, only he himself knew and revealed to none.

“It is a joy to see you arrive, my Lady. Head vassal.” He gave a short bow to both Luvia and Nagaev in turn. “I've been pestered with questions regarding your presence all night.” Years before, his handsome features and blue blood would have guaranteed him a life of easy and mindless leisure as the consort to the heir of a noble family. He had decided otherwise, wishing to prove himself in service to his liege. The offers no longer came.

“How many?” Nagaev asked.

“At least five. Luca, Al-Naseer and Zirinsky mingle among the guests. Anhäuser is by her side.” Von Anhalt reached into his pocket and lit a cigarette, holding the lighter low and on the damaged side of his neck. His eyes shifted to the distance and with a smirk he caught a few of the guests taking nervous looks his way. “I recognized one among the guests that I suspect to be in her service. A new arrival that wasn't with the two I tracked down yesterday.”

“Any issues?”

“None, other than your insistence that I should not kill them. My Lady, if I may...”

“You have that right.” Luvia cut in.

“I've heard mockery of your name. That you wouldn't dare show your face here.”

Luvia scowled. Von Anhalt took perverse pleasure in informing her of every perceived insult to the Edelfelt name, true or not, all in the hope that he might have the honor of avenging them, but the man also had the keen ability to see vulnerabilities and cracks in the ranks of the most disciplined foe. More than once Luvia had made use of his incredible prowess. More than once she had regretted doing so.

“I have proved them wrong, have I not?”

“It's not just the plebs. Even old families have added to it.”

Luvia furrowed her brow at Von Anhalt's derision of the commoners. “I will let them all watch. You shall have the position on my left.”

No barbed wire marked the bit of no man's land between the two blocs. Heads tuned to Luvia as she began to cross the empty paved expanse in stride, some for a glance, some for a longing look, other still for a glare. She saw her foe on the far side, hemmed in by a crowd of courtiers.

Lady Claudia Giuliano. A boor with no taste, spending in a misguided attempt to impress, she had built the most comprehensive facade of class among all the nobles of the Clocktower. Seeing her laden with enough jewelry to weigh her down, scented with perfumes and dressed in the most intricate of dresses made Luvia sick to the pit of her stomach. She was not an ugly woman. Without all the trinkets and rouges spattered on her she would have been more beautiful, but she doused herself with as much luxury as she did perfume. Luvia fought the desire to wrinkle her face in contempt and disgust. The smell and look of luxury was so strong that it brought to mind just the thing it was supposed to hide – putrid carrion.

Giuliano only saw Luvia approach as the chatter around her died down. She waved her hand once and the crowd parted from Luvia's way. One remained by her right side, fixed still in his place, glaring at the man on Luvia's left.

“Ah, Lady Edelfelt. I was unaware of your presence. You are always welcome to my modest banquets, whether the invitation is extended to you or not.” Giuliano bowed her head courteusly – a gesture that Luvia considered enraging mockery.

Luvia made no effort to respond to the gesture. “Ah, so you are indeed the new proprietor of this palace I had assumed your funds too lacking for such an endeavour.”

She felt a change among the other mages in attendance. None dared show a thing. Luvia cherished every moment of watching Giuliano squirm behind her unmoving face. No smile ever went deeper than skin deep among these nobles. Their faces moved like a mask of skin on the face of a mannequin. Grotesque. Uncanny.

“Fortune has favored me as of late, as she has you as well. I hear you continue to instruct in physical self-defence.”

“I do,” Luvia replied.

“That is remarkably wise of you. Allows you to be closer to the new arrivals. Lesser mages would fear injury, assassination or being being studied.”

Luvia weighed the meaning of those words. Had Giuliano found a new protege from underneath her nose? Was she mocking her for that? Or was she threatening her by referencing her continued instruction? Only the possibility of Rin being discovered worried Luvia.

“I am always ready to instruct whoever so wishes,” Luvia said, letting her gaze remain on Giuliano for just a moment longer. “Some are in dire need of it.”

“Indeed, but your young age is truly exceptional for an instructor. Some take issue.”

“I am aware. As I have made clear, I accept any open challenge for the positition. You show wisdom in not contesting my appointment.”

“I would never do such a thing, but some express doubt as to your capability.”

“Would they wish for a demonstration?”

“Excuse me?”

“Would these witnesses present,” Luvia said and made a slow, full turn, shifting her gaze to each person present in turn, “wish to see me demonstrate my capabilities?”

“I'm not quite sure I follow.”

“Of course you do, you sow.” Luvia raised her voice, extended her hand in the customary gesture of a challenge and intoned with care the words she knew would go down in history.

“In the presence of these witnesses, for the insults and disparaging of my family name, I, Luviagelita Edelfelt, head of the Edelfelt family, hereby challenge you to a duel to the death.”

No person can control their emotion when facing their worst nightmare, and every mage's greatest fear is being caught unaware. The emotionless mask on Giuliano's, that imitation of dignity and politiness, shattered and stupefied terror showed on her face. The shock of her sudden reaction was lost in the strength of the gasps that rose from the crowd.

She twitched, never letting her gaze off Luvia. Anhäuser took a step forward by her side, ready to spring forth into action, but his master finally regained her wits and halted him with an outstretched hand.

“I refuse,” she aid.

Silence fell as quickly as it had been broken. Luvia raised her voice. “You do? The honor of my family leaves me with only one alternative.”

“You would lecture me on honor?”

“Honor and a great many other things. I have followed the forms. Your commitment to tradition demands that you do as well.”

“You have issued your challenge. Take your own advice and leave! The smell of blood you bring unsettles my guests.”

“They have nothing to fear from me. My attention is only given to those who plot against me.”

“Oh? And would that group perhaps include every prominent mage in the Association?” An approving murmur rose from the crowd as Giuliano mockingly gave her opinion. “Your arrogance knows no bounds. Did your father plot against you as well? Leave. I will not let the Edelfelts turn this reception into a slaughter.”

“I gave you the option to avoid it. If bloodshed ensues, it will be on your hands.”

“You would wage war to preserve one man's vile ideas, thoughts that'll tear open the fabric of our society? So be it.” Giuliano turned her back on Luvia, who did the same. The eyes of the every person in attendance were on the pair. The realization of the old gesture flowed throughout the crowd, eliciting gasps of shock.

As Luvia headed away, the panic began to spread. A great many of the neutrals scurried off into the night – afraid that the killing might begin then and there.

Von Anhalt walked tensely by her side, barely able to restrain his excitement. “You made history tonight, my Lady. Give the order and we'll gut them.”

“We will act as tradition dictates.” Luvia halted by her limousine and turned towards him.

“My Lady, give me the authority to carry out a larger attack with my own mages. The enemy is vulnerable.”

“No. Preserve your strength.”

“There will be losses, but even then I'll gut them! Give me the permission and-”

Luvia's patience ran thin as the adrenaline left her body. The fear was returning, seizing the opportunity after all her preparation had come to naught. She raised her hand. “Move on the two they tried to sneak in. That will send a message that I will not be brought down by subterfuge. You may kill the more dangerous one yourself.”

He bowed deep, unable to wipe the smile of excitement from his face and disappeared into the night. With barely constrained nervousness she leapt inside the limousine behind Nagaev and let a calm sigh as the vehicle began to move. The shivering began. Cold sweat broke out on her body. Having spent her entire evening surrounded by danger, its passing now left he body weak and drained.

Her limousine rushed forward until the deathly countryside darkness swallowed the entire motorcade whole. In the safety of the passenger space, Luvia smashed her fist against the armrest of her seat.

“Now we will bleed each other to death like a pack of rats in the gutter,” she said.

In the dim light inside the vehicle, Nagaev's face looked almost skeletal. At times like this his age showed. “The neutrals will move to your side. By showing respect to tradition and embarassing her, her support erodes.”

“There is a curious irony to it. The best thing she and I could do is slit our wrists and avoid the bloodshed.”

“Wouldn't that too be a waste beyond measure?”

“I do not cherish the thought that dozens will die for my sake.”

“We will slay hundreds.”

“And give them mad beast they warned I would become.”

“Any man will turn into a beast when wounded and forced into a corner.”

“Or woman. Not her, though.”

“Hell hath no fury, and so forth...” Nagaev sighed and broke out a pair of glasses, filling them to the brim from a flask hidden in his suit's pocket despite Luvia's disapproving expression. “Did you believe… that she would accept the challenge?”

Luvia took the glass, holding it with two fingers, careful not to spill a drop. “Truthfully… no, but I was not bluffing.”

Nagaev emptied his glass and sucked air in through gritted teeth. “I never insinuated that.”

“Of course not. You know me too well.”

“I knew your father better.” Nagaev's face strained as if having said too much.

Luvia weighed her response, letting her heavy gaze remain on him. “Would you wish to join him?”

Nagaev sighed. “He would never forgive me if I did.”

Luvia emptied her glass. “Then remain with me and focus on the present. Otherwise we will all be carrion before the end of the month.”


	4. Chapter 4

Even at the risk of having to face her own naivete, Rin held on to to the one belief and hope she had possessed for her future – that she would at least be allowed to study. Not in illustrious, august surroundings, not under reputable tutors, but in the Department of Mineralogy regardless. It couldn't possibly be too much to ask that she would be given the chance to continue her family's work.

The impersonal, machine-typed letter stated otherwise.

_On the basis of your application, background, recommendations, latent potential, personal skill or the lack thereof, your application to the Department of Mineralogy has been rejected. We instruct you to seek other alternatives, such as the Department of Modern Magecraft Theories._

The letter didn't even use her name. Only the stamp on it hinted at the document having been touched by a human being at all. The violet ink stood in a mocking contrast against the white paper sheet down on the floor.

Laying down on her bed, clutching her sides, she didn't want to cry, but as the last few days had made obvious to her, what she wanted did not matter.

It was all coming to nothing. After twenty years of being destined for one thing, for a dozen of which she had been an orphan, she had failed to even make the pass to begin her studies. She would never succeed her family's work. Failure.

It hurt. More than the rejection it hurt to know that she had failed. She'd thought herself smart, confident and talented only for all of it to come to naught. A gut-wrenching disappointment. What else could she consider herself?

There was a knock on the door. Rin didn't stir, but after the second set of four knocks, she knew she would have. Andrea. It couldn't be anyone else.

“Just a moment.” Rin dried her eyes with her sleeve. There wasn't time to do much, but it could look a lot worse. But what about an excuse? Family trouble would do – and it really wasn't that far from the truth.

After the test, Andrea had treated Rin to coffee and a quick introduction to how things worked in the Clocktower. Andrea had clearly made peace with the cynical reality that Rin was only beginning to get accustomed to. Rin never let it slip just how naively she had thought of things beforehand, but from the way how Andrea looked at Rin whenever the matter as brought up, it was clear she knew. There was no hiding the fact.

Rin opened the door.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Andrea asked, almost beaming with happiness that seemed utterly irrational to Rin. She leaned against the doorframe and held up a form that by glance looked to tell the same story as Rin's did. “Check it out. Not even a stamp. Did you get one?”

The boldness with which the girl presented the proof of her own failure caught Rin off guard. She took a step back and held her hand out “Yes, I did. It's over there, somewhere. Come on in.” Rin turned around and stepped back in, anxious to hide her face from Andrea as soon as she could.

Andrea scavenged the discarded paper from the floor and held it up close to her face. “Nice. Department of Mineralogy.”

“What?”

“Did you check the fine print on the stamp?”

“No, I… just tossed it aside.”

“What? Why'd you do that? They want you. It's not like they'd use the stamp otherwise.”

“What?” Rin stopped and forgot her previous of worry of how she might look.

“Yeah. If there was a signature, you'd be able to get in for less than 40 thousand. With the stamp, I'm guessing 70, maybe 80 thousand pounds. My cousin paid 200 thousand, but he's dumb as all hell.”

“So they're shaking me down for money. Great.” She dropped down onto the bed, bouncing a bit as she folded her arms together and grit her teeth.

“Of course they are. Wouldn't you be, if you had that kind of job?” Andrea joked.

“What about you? Are you going to buy your way in?”

Andrea pulled back the chair beside Rin's desk and sat on it, pressing her elbow down on the desk and leaning lazily against it. “I would, but… well, my family thinks I need to get more serious about thaumaturgy, so they're not buying my way in until I do a year in Modern Magecraft.”

“Really? What for?”

“My family is putting the screws on me so I don't start getting any independent thoughts just because they chose me as the heir over my brother. Tch. They think having to do a year with this 'Lord' El-Melloi or whatever is going to help me take things seriously. How is it gonna help if I have to sit a full year with him no matter what? But you know how family is.”

Rin dropped her gaze and turned her head.

The silence lasted until Andrea's face reddened and she hurried to apologize. “Sorry. I mean, you could've told me. Aww hell… I feel like shit. I'm sorry.”

“It's fine. I can't be the only girl with dead parents around here.”

“Yeah, I… I'm sorry. If it makes you feel any better, there isn't a lot of love in my family. Propably won't, but still.”

Rin forced a smile onto her face and managed a nod. "Hey, would you know a good place to have a cup of tea? I'm tired of sitting in this box.”

Some time later, over a cup of fine black tea, Rin dropped any pretension of knowing her way around the Clocktower and asked Andrea how to go about buying her way into the department she wished. When she made her way back to her tiny room, Rin took Andrea's advice. On the backside of the letter she had received, she scribbled a simple question.

_How much?_

It was blunt, crass and brazen of her, but if they wanted her money, they would put up with it.

An application was not the only thing she put her money to work on. She'd done her best to sort out her finances before her trip, selling off some possessions in order to have more liquid funds to work with. Unsure of how else to go about her task, she contacted the gemstone suppliers she had used in Fuyuki, and they directed her to suppliers in London. Affordable ones too, as they promised.

Though she didn't think of it that way herself, Rin was essentially hedging her bets. If the Department of Mineralogy would try to squeeze her too hard, she could wave them off and focus on working by herself. Of course, that would mean no access to tutors, workshops or the department's own libraries, but she could make use of the more general collection available to all students.

Even if the department would be easy to negotiate with, it would take time, and what better way to spend that time than by making progress? There was no sense moping about. Action helped her mood more than anything else. There was even the possibility that she could utilize some of what Lord El-Melloi II was said to teach. The little she'd heard of Lord El-Melloi II so far included that the man had radical and controversial ideas regarding the utilization of magecraft. Andrea was dismissive of him, calling him a particularly dull tool that families used to punish unruly heirs like her.

Rin didn't quite trust Andrea, but the truth was that for as long as the girl kept treating her well enough, there was no reason to kick her away from her life. As the days passed, the shock of arrival wore off and loneliness began to set it, Rin learned to appreciate her presence. She was a source of information – the only one Rin really had. It was clear that Andrea's ethnicity made it much easier for her to hold her ear against the ground and hear things that were actually useful. Platitudes and small talk could still offer something to read between the lines, unlike the contempt and occasional insult that Rin received. 

For Rin, life at the Clocktower was lonely. She wasn't the only one, from what she could tell. After a few days, what had at first looked like an undistinct mass in her eye divided into cliques. She couldn't tell what held the groups together. At times it seemed liked nationality, at times a quirk of body language or a shared language. Rin couldn't tell, but she felt the heavy, ancient presence of the rules that divided them up into their cliques, outside of which few truly socialized with one another.

Rin had thought herself to be lonely when living in Fuyuki under the guise of an ordinary student, but here, where she was surrounded by thousands who all did the same, all pretending not to be wielders of lethal power, the feeling of loneliness was worse.

Thus, Rin did what she had done in the past. She put all that beside her and occupied herself with work. Between the rows of grimoires and tomes that lined the labyrinthian library, it was easy to live as if nothing had changed.

-

Luvia didn't wake as the maidservant opened the door to her bedroom. She only shifted as the girl pulled the heavy curtains off to the side. Low clouds rolled over, showering rain from time to time. It made for a chilly morning.

“Did you sleep well, my lady?” The girl asked, setting down the breakfast tray on Luvia's bed.

“Not too well, I fear,” Luvia said and brushed away her bangs from her forehead. She blinked heavily and lifted herself up to a seated position with her hair loosely scattered around. 

“Shall I have the tea made stronger?”

“I will manage.”

“As you wish.” The girl whipped around and stepped to leave.

“What is your name?”

The girl halted. “I-, I must take my leave. Sir Nagaev will be waiting.”

“He can wait." Luvia sipped her tea, letting her lips remain on the edge gold-lined cup for a while longer, and set the cup down with both hands. "I will not see him until my head clears. Unpleasant dreams, you see.”

The maidservant turned around, demurely lowering her gaze. “I understand.”

“What is your name?” Luvia repeated her question as pleasantly as she could.

“Lund.”

“Your father serves me as well, if I recall. A theoreticist?”

“That… that is true.”

Luvia sighed, disappointed that her attempt of showing interest in the girl had resulted in the opposite reaction of what she had hoped. Being reminded of her family only terrified the girl. “I will not keep you any longer. See Nagaev in, please.”

The girl left in a hurry and Nagaev soon entered the room, looking entirely unaffected by the early hour. Luvia wondered if the man stood up earlier only to present himself as spirited as he always looked early in the morning.

“Should I be worried, now that even my own servants fear me?” Luvia asked.

“Fear commands obedience.”

“Obedience, but not loyalty. How many dead?”

“Two of ours, three of theirs.”

“And how much is my head worth?”

“200 million pounds.”

“Still no share in my crest or the family fortune?”

“No.”

“Then they have divided it among themselves long since, and negotiations like that take years. The roots run as deep as I feared. But enough of that. What else is there for today?”

“Von Anhalt's report and one applicant to the department of Mineralogy whom I thought particularly interesting.”

“Oh?” Luvia shifted herself upwards on the bed and reached to take the slide of paper from Nagaev.

The applications that the departments received were readily accessible knowledge. Though the departments squeezed their prospective applicants for as much money and favors as they possibly could, they also fought amongst each other for promising young mages. Once settled in to their new homes for a year or so, few mages moved between different branches of magic, as they would form a highly dependent relationship with their tutors and departments. This too would be reflected in the magic they would pass down to their descendants. Thus, enticing a particularly talented young mage to join a department could lead to an alliance that lasted for generations.

The Edelfelts, one of the most prominent families to utilize jewelry magic, held much sway in the department of Mineralogy. It was no wonder that a copy of Rin's letter was among the mail addressed to Luvia.

“How much…” Luvia turned the letter around in her hands and checked for other markings. “She does not care to mince words.”

“An admirable quality.”

“She strikes your fancy, Nagaev.”

“Professional interest only,” Nagaev said and wiped a speck of dust off his suit.

“Determined, beautiful, a gemstone specialist… a curious combination of qualities in just a single woman. Why would the Tohsakas choose to specialize into jewelry?”

“It's exceptional. That makes it effective.”

“But where would they get the expertise for it? The funds? It is a curious choice, even with exceptionalism in mind... Anything else?”

“She's making friends.”

“Friends?” Luvia looked at Nagaev as if he had claimed to have seen fairies and pink elephants.

“Should I intervene?”

“No. Keep her safe, but let her learn a lesson she must learn by herself. However, I want to know who this 'friend' claims to be. Check her background.”

“Already on it. Her name, supposedly, is Andrea Balcazar.

“Tch. Laughable." Luvia rested her forehead against her palm and rubbed her eyes. "Propably one of the usual feelers that check on new arrivals.”

“And there's one more thing.” Nagaev handed another dossier to her. “Gemstone purchases.”

“Did she buy from one of our suppliers?” Luvia raised her head and eagerly took the file.

“Well, by pure chance, with us having a stake in half of all supply in Europe, it is more likely than not. However, it seems that she did so by accident. We only noted it because the purchases were... substantial.

“How so?”

“Far too large for a student and enough to draw attention should we not intervene. I can't say why she's making the purchases. Details are on the second page.”

“Let me see… oh my. Either there must be much more of her family fortune left than we thought, or she is spending very, very irresponsibly. Why would she do that?”

“Stockpiling?”

“She would have had all the time in the world to do so beforehand without raising any attention. A spending spree like this suggests a lapse of judgement or a crisis. I… I think… it's research.”

“That kind of volume with no workshop to support her? Nonsense.”

“We have struck gold, Vasili Ilyich. A true prodigy on our hands. It is time I had a talk with her.”


	5. Chapter 5

Great stone arches held the expanse of the roof safely above the heads of the hundreds of students crowded into the auditorium. Rin sat far up front with Andrea beside her, having arrived well in advance to secure a seat towards the fore. Magic would amplify the lecturer's voice enough for him to be heard even far in the back, but Rin wished to see the man responsible for the management of her department from as close as she could. Ignoring the loud chatter of hundreds to the best of her ability, she fixed her gaze on the pulpit that stood in the middle of the stage.

Silence fell as a man stepped onto the stage. Rin knew he couldn't be the lecturer himself. No lecturer could command such silence by his sheer presence alone. A feeling of tense dread settled on the crowd as he crossed over to the far right side and turned to the crowd. He stood with his arms behind his back, gaze fixed onto an indistinct point somewhere in the distance. Though his eyes scarcely moved at all, it felt though he noticed even the tiniest twitch.

Rin couldn't take her eyes off him. It was as though they were playing tricks on her. What looked like grievous wounds that had never quite healed ran down the side of the man's neck. The collar of the shirt he wore with his suit was low, emphasizing the damage that might've only just peeked into view had be bothered to hide it.

For a short, tense moment, there was silence in the hall. Then Lord El-Melloi II stepped on to the stage. He took his position by the pulpit. Low chatter returned, much more nervous in tone than it had been before.

Rin leaned towards Andrea. “Do you know who that other person is?”

“No,” she replied.

Andrea looked serious. Rin doubted whether she truly didn't know who the man was, but before she could make up her mind whether to ask Andrea again, Lord El-Melloi cleared his throat and began to speak.

“Like all mages, you have been raised to value blood as the foundation of all magecraft. It is. The blood that courses in each of your veins is, for the most of you, also the reason why you sit in my pulpits and not those of De Graaf, Clemenceau, or even De la Guardie.”

His voice took a stern quality and rose over the wave of murmur that rose at his previous claim. “Do not take my words as an insult. My contempt is reserved for those incapable of living up to their potential, however great it is. My blood...” He raised his arm, forming the tiniest bit of fire between his outstretched fingers. “…is part of the reason why I stand here. The other part is intellect.”

He let his commanding gaze wander among the crowd, looking for the sneers of contempt given by those who believed themselves too noble to sit in his auditorium. He passed over Rin without lingering on her for a moment longer than anyone else.

“Whether you listen matters not to me. But, it will decide whether you will go on to greater things, or join the growing group of my detractors. If any of you are here thinking that my methods offer shortcuts to power, then you are mistaken. I offer efficiency that is achieved with hard work and intelligence.”

He took another short pause and looked down at his notes for the first time, turning a page. “I will begin my lecture from where I started – on blood, and how it forms the foundation of magecraft. It does not define the practice, the technique, or the methods. Only the foundation.”

Rin felt no malice looking upon the man. What others often see as eccentricity or contempt for tradition could be a spark of talent. Could. Rin listened to every word with care, determined to discern whether Lord El-Melloi was a man of his reputation or something far greater.

-

Done with her lunch, Andrea placed her cutlery aside and rested her elbows against the cafeteria table. Built on the second floor of a building beside the long pathways that cut through the grounds, the cafeteria had a bird's eye view of the seemingly eternal flow of students outside.

Andrea leaned forwards, hunching her back. “Cheeky little man, isn't he? Claims it's his intellect that put him up there. Pfhah! His real name isn't even El-Melloi.”

Rin hadn't quite yet made it through her food yet, with her mind occupied by the ideas of the previous lecture. It didn't take long to see why they were controversial – they were new. Rin fought her desire to reach for the notes she had eagerly made and squeezed on the fork harder, stabbing another small potato with it. “What is it then?”

“Velvet. Waver Velvet.”

“So why is he...”

“Up there? He married into the El-Melloi. Matrilineally.” Andrea flashed a mean grin.

“He gave up his own name and legacy?”

“What name and legacy? Ever heard of the grand house of Velvet?”

“Can't say I have.”

Andrea laughed callously. “I'd change my name too if I was him. Anyway, I heard all about it. The nobles forced into his class love telling the story, so I didn't need to even ask. The El-Mellois lost big in some skirmish in Asia, and he married into the family soon afterwards. All so he could be their well-named and titled errand boy.”

“What about that other mage there with him?”

“Well I'm not sure, but I think… oh my God, what is she doing here?”

“What?” Rin lifted her eyes up from the meal.

“Over there,” Andrea said and tilted her head to the window on the side. “Luviagelita Edelfelt.”

Rin looked outside and quickly spotted Luvia walking among the crowd with two mages by her side. The crowd parted from their way, with Luvia and her mages looking entirely unconcerned by others around them, neither forcing them for their way nor paying them any heed. Out in the open air, surrounded by two mages who both stood head and shoulders above her, the Edelfelt heir appeared almost tiny.

“Edelfelt? I think I know the name,” Rin said.

“You should. It's bad news. Some even say the name is cursed.”

“Nonsense.”

“Like some mystic code. Say the name and they'll come carve your family fortune up.”

Even with her lesser experience of mage politics, Rin knew how much bloodshed could occur when inheritances and successions didn't take place harmoniously. “They intervene in disputes?”

“Yeah. A bunch of hyenas. They became rich and powerful with mercenary work, but that's not the half of it. Treasure doesn't interest Luviagelita. She wants blood. Didn't you hear what happened two weeks ago?”

“No. What happened?”

“Well, there was this huge reception at some old palace. All the old families were there. It's the kind of stuff they don't want us plebs to even know about.”

“Politics?”

“Politics and then some. Anyway, she wasn't even invited. She showed up late in the night, walked right up to Lady Giuliano, the head of one of the oldest families around, and challenged her to a duel to the death.”

“What?”

“Sure, she invoked all the usual stuff about family honor and other stuff we plebs don't understand. Giuliano wouldn't have any of it, so that means there's basically a war going on. I overheard that several mages have already been found dead. That's why everyone is on edge. But there she goes, just like nothing's going on...”

Rin thought back on the hour she had spent being interrogated inside a vehicle, wondering if she had so thoroughly misjudged Luvia's character. The choice of blue as her color puzzled Rin. It was a serene, dignified shade of it, so unlike regal purple or blood-soaked crimson that would've matched the person that Andrea spoke of. It made Rin doubt Andrea. Luvia certainly wasn't embracing that image of herself.

“She doesn't look like it at all,” Rin mused.

“Of course not. You know how these nobles are – fancy and elegant and snobbish, but she's evil. Bloodthirsty and crazy. She even deposed her own father.”

Rin had to blink and stop to think whether she had heard correctly. “She did what?”

“Deposed her own father.”

“Her own father? How could she have possibly done that?

“The same way you screw over your sibling or cousin, right? Supposedly, she wasn't happy with how her father wasn't killing enough mages.”

Rin looked outside, catching one last look at Luvia off in the distance and then turned back to Andrea, finding her still staring at Luvia in the distance. Rin thought of calling out Andea on her jealousy, but that would've exposed something even more obvious – that Andrea wasn't the only one. It irritated Rin how someone so like her could be in a position of so much influence, prestige, and power.

Thinking no more of it, Rin broke out her notebooks again.

“You made notes?” Andrea asked.

“Sure.”

“I thought you were just doodling.”

“Me? No, I can't draw.”

“You think his stuff is actually useful at all?”

“I don't know, but as long as I'm there, I might as well look into it, right?”

“I guess. I mean, you have a chance to make it out of his classes, while I'll be stuck there for the rest of the year. No sense writing it down when I'll be hearing it a dozen times over.”

“Yeah... Hey, uh, I've got some stuff to look for at the library.”

“Again? You must've found something really interesting. Don't worry, I won't ask.”

“Still looking.” Rin smiled happily. “I'll see you later. ”

Rin hurried away, glancing at the one bit of writing in latin alphabet among the rest of her notes as she went. She'd made most of her notes in kanji, thinking that the quick translation of concepts in her head would ensure comprehension and keep her focused instead of memorizing by repetition. One thing she had sketched down in latin alphabet though, and that was the name of a single tome. Reading it made her fingertips tingle in anticipation of holding it in her hands.

_On the Practical Application of Magic in the 21st Century_

The way to the general collection library was short, twisty, but Rin knew it by heart after a mere handful of days. Having been kept away from the wellsprings of thaumathurgical knowledge all her life, the taste and sheer volume of fresh new knowledge overwhelmed her. New theories and insights into old methods invigorated her with an immense desire to learn and experiment. She lamented the many old ideas she had neglected to note down during her time in Fuyuki and eagerly tackled those she had, armed with the knowledge that had so long eluded her. The work consumed her time, attention and an inordinate amount of gems, bringing the ever familiar torment of unstable finances back into her life.

The general collection library was the oldest of the Clocktower libraries, having fallen into disrepair long since. It was a largely redundant facility as each department maintained their own thorough collection, access to which was jealously guarded from any who were not under the department's influence, and partly from those who were as well.

The age and lack of space showed. Though it was built above ground, the passages and rows were so crowded that it looked more like a catacomb than a library – and it smelled like one too. Still, one who knew what to look for could find the way around. Rin found the tome she looked for tucked away among a number of other volumes deemed unimportant.

_The Collected Publications of Professor El-Melloi II. First Edition._

By checking the printing date, Rin noted that it most likely wasn't even the most recent edition. Still, judging by the weight of the tome, The professor was clearly a prolific researcher.

Footsteps came closer. The rows filled with books blocked much of the sound from echoing and steps could only be heard from closer nearby. Rin froze still when knew for certain the steps were coming closer and not merely holding their distance. She turned her head, caught the glimpse of something moving several rows over and stepped back, turning to face the sound.

First a man came in to view from an intersecting passageway some twenty meters away from her. The damage on his neck identified him to her and Rin shifted one of her feet back, readying herself in reaction to the distinct feeling of dread the man brought with him.

Shoes tapped against the floor, and Luviagelita Edelfelt came in to view.

The man stood still and turned his back as Luvia approached Rin. The distance between the two left Rin with much time to take in the impression of the mage approaching her. A fine blue cape covered her shoulders, hanging on one side in a dandylike manner, while her golden-blonde hair had been gathered in drills on the other. This wasn't the woman she remembered from that limousine, the one who had studied Rin with a keen eye. This young lady was a show-off who managed to keep just enough of her dignity to still lay claim to being elegant.

“Evening, Miss Tohsaka,” Luvia said.

“What do you want?”

Luvia stopped close to Rin and offered her hand. Rin flushed with anger at first, expecting that the proud noble demand her to kneel and kiss it, but eased as she noticed that Luvia extended her arm for a handshake, as if to an equal. Disarmed by the sudden gesture, Rin made no reply and responded in kind, touching Luvia's hand nervously. Just like Rin wasn't sure what to say, she wasn't sure what she felt from the touch of skin against skin. Whetever it was, it was strong – impossible to ignore.

“I came to offer my apologies for the trouble I caused you on your arrival,” Luvia replied. “I am sure that you, as the head of a clan yourself, understand my choice of methods.”

The courtesy shown by the noble had disarmed her completely, and the realisation of that fact now had Rin worried. “Maybe I do. Does it matter?”

“It depends. There could be a way in which I might repay you for any trouble I have caused.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” Rin tilted her head and looked at the bodyguard standing guard behind Luvia. “Your bodyguard was at Lord El-Melloi's lecture today.”

“Correct.”

“Why?”

Luvia eyed the tome Rin held against her side. “Until now, his detractors have been satisfied with burying his ideas in decrepit tombs like this. Some would wish to bury the man himself.” Luvia glanced back over her shoulder. “My retainer's presence is a message to all who harbor such desires.”

“You support him.”

“The arrangement is mutually beneficial. If you would be interested, I could perhaps offer you something similar.”

“What would I ever want for you?”

“I have heard you have an interest in gemstones.”

“Excuse me?”

“You made a number of purchases from suppliers who are part of my house's network.”

Rin's gut twisted. The damn suppliers had set her up. “You spied on my purchases?”

“Not at all. You bought from me. Was getting my attention not your intention?”

“No. I was trying to…” Rin stepped back and swung the back of her hand through the air. “You know what, it's none of your business what I was trying to do. ”

“Gemstones are my business, Miss Tohsaka. Had you bought from someone else, they might have not been so kind as to inform you of the blunder you have made.”

She's perfect, Rin thought. Inhumanly, infuriatingly perfect. There isn't a shred of humanity in her. Prim and proper, so smart she'll never fall for stupid mistakes like mine. “What makes you that much more gracious? And who are you to call it a blunder?”

“You are new here, Miss Tohsaka. Perhaps you do not understand how-”

“Don't lecture me!”

Luvia stood quiet for a moment, watching Rin and giving her enough time to realize her overreaction. Finally, with a condescending voice, Luvia spoke up. “Please do not raise your voice. I had hoped to have a chance to speak to you discreetly.”

“Spit it out then. I'm busy enough as it is.”

“The gems you purchased, for whatever reason, I will not judge, present a major threat to your own security. I offer you an exchange. We may discuss the details later, but suffice it to say, I can procure for you things no-one in Japan has dared to dream of.”

“Now I understand why they call you a bunch of hyenas.”

“Do I look like a hyena to you, Miss Tohsaka?” Luvia stepped closer, lifting her head up high. “A scavenger scurrying about?”

Only now Rin noticed the necklace that was as thin as a strand of spider's silk. It tempted the eye to look further downwards. “You sneak around like one for sure,” Rin said.

“Hmph. I do not scavenge for the scraps of others. Only the finest things interest me, so show some self-respect and consider yourself worthy of my time.” Luvia stepped to the side, running her finger along the line of her jaw as she looked at the books stacked in rows.

“You still haven't told me what you want in exchange.”

“Your services. They interest me. _Au revoir_ , Miss Tohsaka. You shall receive my invitation soon enough.” Luvia turned around on the spot and began to stride away.

“What kind of...” Rin stood there, listening to the sounds of the heels tapping against the cold marble floor. Having done her best to shoo Luvia away, she now felt like a buffoon calling after her. When the sound of Luvia's footsteps faded to the background, Rin grit her teeth and buried her face in the palm of her hand. Perfect, Rin, she thought. A child could've handled that more maturely.

But a child wouldn't understand to be suspicious of her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've made some changed to the tags to inform that this fic does indeed take some liberties with the established canon.

That little exchange at the library had not been to the smoothest, but precisely because of that Luvia felt giddy with excitement for the first time in ages. Rin was truly something else. A little blunt and all the more charming for it. Someone bold and unafraid of trying to discover something new. 

The invoices for Rin's purchases told quite a tale. Among the families of the Clocktower, Rin's eager and clumsy efforts were like a breath of wonderfully fresh air inside a crumbling, rotting crypt. 

Mages guarded their secrets so jealously that the very thought of discovering something new terrified them. It was as if it were possible to only grow so tall before the sickness of jealousy and pettiness set in. They would ost would content themselves with ever smaller gains, more concerned to avoid being noticed and stealing from those who did. Old families with glorious names stagnated into fiddling with bloodlines that had lost all vigor. A slow, lingering death that lasted centuries. 

Rin had grown with immense potential, untainted by the rot seeping deep into the roots and foundations of the Clocktower. Now she would need to be protected and brought into the fold as a vassal to the Edelfelts. 

But how exactly would she convince her? Truth be told, Luvia knew not how to deal with a person who didn't reply with a smile and then plot to kill. She knew how to cut deals with mages, and the more she learned of Rin, it was obvious that the Tohsaka heir didn't think like a mage would. What would Rin want, and what would impress her? A lavish ten-course dinner? Wealth? Fame and prestige? She would get an opportunity to make a deal the likes of which a mage would sell their soul for – the few who still had one to trade away.

Luvia wasn't certain of the answer when the limousine rolled forwards on the driveway and came to a leisurely halt in front of the entrance to the manor itself. There was a short delay after a servant opened the car door and stepped aside. Seeing Rin step outside still filled Luvia with a feeling of wonder at the Tohsaka girl's character. The boldness with which she marched into a rival family's mansion, fortress and headquarters was incomprehensible, but Luvia couldn't simply dismiss Rin as a naive fool. Misguided and uninformed perhaps, but not a fool. Rin would be intelligent enough to know there was nothing to fear from Luvia.

Luvia watched her carefully from the second floor. From the far gate, through the driveway and onto the entrance of the manor itself, every vista had been shaped to evoke a subtle sense of dignified grandeur.

It made Luvia tingle all over wondering how Rin would react. 

Rin did little. She looked back over her shoulder at the length of the driveway, lingered for a moment appraising the ornamental columns, and then marched inside. 

Luvia turned around and headed to the main foyer, getting there in time to see Rin walk in from the railing. She laid her hand on the wooden guardrail, the smooth cloth of her glove gliding along the varnished surface with ease. It was always a delight to make an entrance. 

“I trust your trip here was pleasant enough?” Luvia asked as she descended down the stairs. 

“Yes.” Rin nodded, meeting Luvia's gaze, and then briefly examined her surroundings. “I'm not really used to being driven around in a limousine.”

“This time was more pleasant than the last, I hope.”

“It was.”

“I must repeat my apology for having ambushed you, but surely you...”

“Yes, I get it, but you didn't invite me all the way here just to say that again, right?”

“Not at all. But, if you wish, we can dispense with the business and focus more on the pleasure.”

Rin raised her hand. “I don't mind the occasional free ride but I'd prefer not having to be hauled over here again.” 

“I understand. Fear not, we will settle our matters before you leave. Ah, would like some tea? Coffee? Wine?”

“Tea would be nice.”

Luvia led Rin to a smaller room, a study lined with bookshelves. A single smallish table stood by a window towards the side, with room enough for a few chairs around it. There were only two for now. Luvia did most of her negotiating at a larger, more imposing chamber which had seating for two dozen and room for more. This moment with Rin had none of the tension she associated with such occasions. A change of scenery felt right. 

A servant brought tea, two cups, and then left them alone. For courtesy's sake, Luvia poured it herself. As Rin hesitated to taste hers, Luvia tasted the brew and set it down. Rin tasted hers. There was something charming about the naivete – lining the cup with poison would have been child's play. 

“There is something I have thought of asking you,” Luvia said.

Rin looked up from her tea. “Yes?”

“Earlier I asked you to tell the details of the Grail War, but… I never asked you what it was truly like.”

“Didn't I tell you?”

Luvia watched as Rin's expression softened after another sip of tea. That, at least, had been the correct choice. “Broadly, yes, You told me the ritual worked by summoning heroic spirits, but… what was it like to see legends brought to life? True heroes from ages long since past?”

“I didn't always have time to think of it that way. There was always so much going that I forgot the what it truly meant to witness it. So much violence, killing, fear. But sometimes I saw it.”

“I understand what you mean. At first, the mere mention of the war brought a vile taste to my tongue, but I try to see past my own narrow perspective.”

“Yes. The problem was that it wasn't just the good, but the bad as well. Those who designed the Grail and laid the groundwork for the process had to be true visionaries. Shame it was corrupted so horribly.”

“You intend to dismantle it, correct?”

“How did you know?”

“I did not.” Luvia smiled, touching a curl of her hair. “I assumed as much.”

“In any case, it's part of the reason why I'm here. I need to learn how to dismantle it.”

“You have quite the task ahead of you. Speaking of that, has the Clocktower treated you well?”

Discomfort flashed on Rin's face before she replied. “The department of Mineralogy is shaking me down on money and my dear fellow students consider me racially inferior. It's not exactly the best treatment I've had.”

“Oh, it must be dreadful.”

Rin shrugged. “Mostly just annoying.”

“You may find that to change should you accept my offer. Even those who look down upon the orientals will not take any of my retainers lightly.”

“You want me to serve you.”

Luvia shook her head. “Not quite, but-”

“You're looking for a vassal.”

“It is not my intention to force you against your will. I desire your services, but you shall have freedom of choice. ” 

“What does that mean?”

“That you may choose whether you wish to devote yourself to theoretical research, practical study or serving me as a fighting mage.”

“That's awfully generous of you,” Rin said, doubting.

“Not at all.” Luvia dismissed the thought with a flick of her hand. “A matter of practicality and efficient use of talent. In exchange, I can arrange for what you require as a student. Gemstones, letters of recommendation, access to materials and instructors, whatever you need.”

There was a lengthy pause as Rin thought, but to Luvia she still looked as if having made her mind long since. When it came, her reply shocked Luvia.

“No,” Rin said.

Luvia looked upon her in disbelief, waiting for another word of explanation, anything. “Excuse me?”

“I refuse your offer.”

“I… I do not understand. Was I discourteous in some manner?”

“You're asking for too much. I don't need your help.”

The words stunned Luvia. Lower lip trembling, she sought the right words. “Wha… How will you persuade the Depart of Mineralogy? How will you acquire the jewelry you need?”

“You think I like it when you spy on my private matters?”

“There are no private matters in magecraft. You are not in Fuyuki anymore. Your mistakes could be lethal.”

“I've lived alone for ten years. What's another ten to that? I'll figure it at all out.”

“Even if you did, what will you do? Spend a decade in underfunded and overcrowded workshops?”

“If I must.” Rin looked away, refusing to hold Luvia's gaze, and lifted the teacup again to gaze at the last bit of coppery color at the bottom.

“Against all odds you live and thrive, you bring your desire to learn and explore with you, and then you want to throw it all away!”

Rin set the cup down and raised her gaze. “You just want to use me.”

“I want to help you! Look around, Rin. The Clocktower is a crypt. You think you come to learn, but it is the place where curiosity and potential go to die.”

“Yeah? Then why should I believe you're any different?”

“I want to see you reach your potential!”

“So that's why you were gracious enough to box me in and leave me no choice but to take your offer.”

“I did no such thing. Your own boneheaded purchase-”

“My what?”

“Had you not bought from me, that purchase would have exposed your potential to the entirety of the Association. Do you believe they would have shown the kind of respect that I have?”

“Respect?” Rin raised her voice. “You think I don't see through it, do you? The niceties, the gracious help you offer?” 

“I want to see you reach your potential!”

“Your family fought mine. For all I've heard of them, the Edelfelts never missed an opportunity to spill blood for their own gain. Now, out of the good in your heart you want to help me out, and I'm supposed to believe any of that? That the one person who wants to see me succeed would just happen to be a family enemy?”

“I lead a house of mages, Rin. Mages kill. Your father was one too.”

“And you betrayed yours!”

“What?”

“You deposed your father, didn't you?”

“No!”

“Then what did-”

“I will not be interrogated about things you do not understand!”

“It doesn't feel nice, huh?” 

“Nagaev!” Luvia pounced up. The door opened and Nagaev stepped in. “Miss Tohsaka asked to be escorted home. Arrange for it.” She turned her head back to Rin. “My offer still stands, as long as you leave now. I expect nothing in return.” 

The stillness in the room was poisonous, asphyxiating. Rin pushed her seat back and turned to leave without showing a single bit of emotion. 

Luvia waited, clutching the sides of the table until she knew for certain that the Tohsaka heir would be out of earshot. She then took one of the cups in her hand and hurled it against the floor.

Rin was is no mage. She might think herself one, but no mage would turn down an offer like Luvia's. Any mage who understood the value of what she offered what would have thrown herself at Luvia's feet. Yet, Rin took the worst rumours as truth. Why? She could be so much more. She could be… 

Mine. Oh dear. 

As the pieces fell together, the sharp edge of her anger turned in on her. The sharpest blade there ever was, wielded by the one person who knew every weakness. 

Luvia smashed her fist against the table and then held desperately onto the edge as disgust and fear struck her. Pathetic. A pretty girl shows a bit of spark to her character and you swoon and go weak in the knees. You haven't changed. You're still the stupid, irresponsible girl you were. Weak. Foolish. If you had controlled yourself father would never have needed to-

A knock on the door. 

“Not now!” She screamed, her voice breaking.

Luvia gripped the edge of the table with both hands. Her breathing quickened to the pace of the growing pain in her chest. This time, there was no stopping of the wave of terror that rushed over her. She collapsed into her seat, weakness draining the feeling from her limbs as it spread. Fear swallowed up the world and her scattered mind with it. 

When the panic departed and left her body a drained wreck, she cried, not knowing what else to do. 

Half an hour later, Nagaev knocked on the door and as Luvia did not answer, he stepped in. 

Luvia made no effort to conceal her state from him. “You should have warned me about the Tohsaka girl,” she said. 

Nagaev focused his gaze on the dusk outside, pretending not to notice her flushed face. “Why?”

“Spirited. Dark hair. Blue eyes. Does that remind you of anyone?”

“No.”

“You never did notice. Not only am I incapable of controlling myself, but I am superficial as well.” She let out a weary sigh. “Did Miss Tohsaka say anything?”

“She will accept a seat in the Department of Mineralogy and the offer of tutoring from Lord El-Melloi.”

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

“She's sensible. Meanwhile I show off my wealth and throw gifts on her like some third-rate, no-name suitor.” Luvia hung her head low and brushed drying tears away with her fingers. “Keep her safe. It won't be long until Giuliano and her ilk sniff her out. Tell the servants to bring me some wine and leave me alone. Please.”

“What kind?”

“The Georgian. Not too sweet.”


	7. Chapter 7

_So when they continued asking Him, He lifted Himself up and said unto them, 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.'_

Kirei had loved that passage, for he could twist it. Who was she, Rin, to criticise him? Was there a single person among all mankind that could truly judge another, even a person like Kirei? Who was truly fit to point out the monster among them? Nobody had been.

Giving in to anger could be the sweetest thing. She looked at the palm of her hand resting against her thigh and curled her fingers into a fist again and again. Creased lines, shallow on her youthful skin, ran across her palm. There was no knife. Why did it feel like she'd jabbed one into Luvia's gut and twisted it?

Still, with a dry sense of humor, Rin thought she herself was improving. This time, it only took a few days to notice how much she'd hurt someone.

With Sakura it had taken ten years.

There she was again, trying to justify her behaviour to herself, but unlike in those juvenile years long before, now she couldn't excuse herself with immaturity. She really needed to be doing better than this.

A puff of cigar smoke singed Rin's nose with its foul sting and brought her back to the present in professor El-Melloi's office. Without a care, he sat in his chair sideways, a few papers in hand and a cigar in the other.

”Do you really have to do that?” Rin asked. She was used to the smell of tobacco smoke, but his callous manner still irritated her.

”I have tried quitting,” he replied.

”I mean, do you have to do that right know?”

”Yes. Unless I remind myself of the more tangible benefits of tutoring whichever pupil Lady Edelfelt has chosen for me, I'm inclined to forget why I even bother.”

”You don't like her, do you?”

”I dislike being beholden to her, or anyone else for that matter.”

”I don't think that's all of it.”

”You may think whatever you wish,” he said and drew open one of the drawers of his writing desk to retrieve a small folder.

Rin knew that he was more than aware of her attempt at fishing for information, but pressed on regardless. ”What is she like?”

Lord El-Melloi shifted himself in his chair, showing signs of irritation on his face. ”She supports me and the propagation of my ideas. That should tell you all you need to know. Now, could we perhaps-”

Sensing the haste with which her tutor wanted to change the subject, Rin interrupted him. Whether she annoyed him or not, if she let him have his way, it would be that much harder to bring up the subject again. ”No, that doesn't tell me enough.”

”Do you expect me to gossip about my powerful benefactor?”

”Not gossip.” She shook her head. ”I… need to know. Please. I have no-one else to ask.”

He stopped to think, drawing on his cigar as if his brain ran on nicotine. ”I was told you had familiarised yourself with my manner of thinking. Did you not do the reading I asked you to?”

”I did. Well in advance, in fact.”

”What are the fundamentals of my theory?”

Rin noted the challenge in his voice and met it. ”Greater understanding of the thaumathurgical process both in general and in regards to how it relates to specific spells. Tailoring of individual methods and applications instead of solely relying on family inheritance. In short, rationalism and efficiency.”

”Correct. You know the ideas, but don't understand the practical application or the consequences.”

”Do enlighten me.”

”She says you are full of talent and latent potential. Most who take interest in my ideas are from relatively new families and seek a way to overcome their own limits. Some succeed. With the exception of Lady Edelfelt and a handful of her retainers, I have yet to tutor young mages of more powerful blood.”

”You're her tutor as well?”

The mention of the fact made him grind his teeth. ”I first met her a few years ago, when we both took part in an… incident at the Adra Castle. A number of mages perished. To solve the issue, I interfaced with her circuits to guide her power.”

”Ah.” Rin chuckled. ”Has she held your leash ever since then?”

He blasted a heavy puff of noxious smoke in Rin's direction. The cloud struck against her face, singing her nose with the stench. ”We made an agreement of tutorship to resolve the issue of my having knowledge of the contents of her crest. I forgot to consider the ramifications of having that information before I did borrow her circuits.”

”So if she trusts you with her secrets, mine are safe with you as well.”

”Trust too amicable a word. She knows it is her support that keeps me alive.”

”Why is that?”

”Do you know why my ideas are so controversial?”

”They're new.”

It was his turn to smile. He lowered his head and gave her a sly look. ”That's the extent of your knowledge. ” He didn't ask. He stated a fact. ”My ideas threaten the hegemony of old blood.”

Rin thought for a moment. The realization clicked in her head and she spoke her thoughts out loud. ”She's the only noble who supports you.”

”Correct. That's the answer to your earlier question.”

Even at the risk of earning another snide quip from him, Rin asked him directly. ”How?”

”Think. Why would a member of one of the high nobility, _Uradel_ , support an upstart whose ideas threaten to tear apart the balance of power? What kind of deranged woman does that?”

”She's not insane. I don't know what she is, but she's not that bloodthirsty monster they make her out as.” Rin blurted her words out and wondered what made her support Luvia so fiercely.

”No, she is not. There is a method to her madness. But what?”

”Power?”

”She has power, wealth and prestige, more than she cares for or knows what to do with. Despite that-”

Rin grew tired of the man's mockery of her and interrupted him again. ”So why does she do it?”

He changed the subject before Rin had another chance to interrupt her. He began to speak with the same voice Rin recognized from his lecture, the one which carried more authority than appeared possible for a frail man like him. ”When I came here 15 years ago, I was a young fool with nothing to my name. I fought in the fourth war to prove my worth as a mage. I did so by demonstrating how weak I am. After I returned I gave up on dreams of greatness and focused on theoretical work much like I had before.”

He stopped to draw on his cigar, taking long to continue and giving Rin the chance to interrupt it him. Content with having her attention, he continued. ”In time, I earned respect, but when I began to advocate the theoretical framework and methods I had developed, I received the same response as I did from the man whose title I carry today. I was made a professor, the youngest in decades, but only a professor of the most meagre department in the Clocktower.”

Rin filled in the next pause he took. ”Modern Magecraft Theories. All the lowly students come to you, the ones who have nowhere else to go.”

”Correct. The ones without connections to the prestigious departments. It was the nobility's way of insulting me and for a time, they laughed and mocked me. After the Adra castle case, they realized their mistake.”

”They handed you every student without a place to go. And with Luvia to support you...”

”Most are weak, new mages, but there are the stragglers of fallen clans and ambitious ones as well. All count on my methods working, and they do. No-one dares deny that anymore. Ten years ago, I was a weak mage with nothing to his name. Now I have a title, a department with thousands of students – weak or not – and the support of the meritocratic block.”

”So the rumours I heard of fighting...”

”All because of me. Strange how a man so weak can cause so much bloodshed.”

”I still don't know why she supports you.”

”A wise person would have cut all contact with me and let the old blood do with me as they liked.” He shook his head. Soon more smoke headed Rin's way. ”My own… family has. They will risk no loss over me. But Luvia, what about her? My ideas threaten the hegemony of old blood and hers is not young either. I'll answer your question: she is an idealist. Egoistical, prideful and stubborn, but beneath her shell, she is an idealist who still believes in the ideals that old nobility claimed to represent.”

”You got that first part right.”

”It's only half the truth. I can't say for certain what the other half is. I belive she is motivated as much by a desire to spite her rivals as she is by any actual interest in the propagation of my theories. But that's not what worries me about her.”

”What does? That she'll grow tired of you?”

”No. Whatever she will do, it will be done with grandeur and elegance. My fear is that she will go too far in her willingness to demostrate the highest virtue of old – the contempt for death.” There was a heavy pause, but his expression softened as he noticed Rin was finally satisfied. ”I will have to ask you something before we begin.”

”Go ahead.”

”You know the Fuyuki Grail better than I do. Would it be possible to bring back a servant that has been summoned previously?”

”You mean, with the memories of service in a previous war?”

”Something along those lines.”

”I can't say for sure unless you tell me exactly what you-”

”A general answer will do.”

”No. But there was an exception. It happened with one the spirits in the most recent war.”

”Which class?”

Rin thought she had heard excitement in his voice, a boyish curiosity, but paid no mind to it as Lord El-Melloi realized the slip and furrowed his brow. ”A saber,” she said.

”So, in ten years, assuming the Grails recovers as it did this time, it would be possible to resummon a previously used servant with the right catalyst.”

”No.”

”Why? You said it happened before. We need only study the phenomenon and reproduce it.”

”It won't happen ever again and I'll dismantle the Grail myself if I have to. It's part of the reason why I'm here, at the Clocktower. I need to learn how to prevent that thing from ever activating again.”

Lord El-Melloi drew on his cigar again, seemingly stirring his brain with it, and set it down on the ashtray. The obvious question of why he would care hung in the air, but Rin held her tongue.

”Let us begin,” he said and began his lesson.

-

At a quiet teahouse a few blocks away from the Clocktower, Rin shared a pot of tea with Andrea.

”You managed to sort it out, huh?” Andrea asked.

”Yes.”

”Can I ask how? I mean, you don't have to answer, but it's not like I can go through my own family contacts.”

”I had to dig deep through old family contacts to make it happen. It cost me a lot.”

”Could I pay you to set me up with them? That would help you earn back some of what you lost.”

”You really think his lectures are that bad?”

Andrea laughed and kicked her foot over the other. ”No. I want to see my parents' faces when they hear I made it out of _Velvet's_ classes.”

More used to a culture of filial piety, Rin felt a bit confused. ”Won't they be angry?”

”A bit. Proud, too. I'm starting to think they expect me to do it.”

”Well, I'd love the money, but I can't. Sorry.”

”It's ok. I can't expect you to share every secret. However… ” Andrea reached for her bag and dropped a small pouch on the table, smiling as Rin's eyes lit up. ”Would this maybe convince you?”

Rin took it in her hands and kept herself from shrieking in joy. Uji sencha leaves, deep-steamed, nitrogen-packed and fresh. ”I…”

”You favorite leaf, isn't it?” Andrea asked.

”How did you find it? I've looked all over and-”

”I'll tell you if you help me with the department. Think it over a cup of tea.”

Later, Rin did, brooding over the forms for gemstone requisition that Luvia's servants had provided her. The transfer to the department of Mineralogy would be in a few days.

She wrote into the marginals with a heavy hand.

_I said too much._

Relief. It might never make it to Luvia, but at least she'd made the gesture. It felt good to set something right after a few days instead of years. She made herself a cup of tea. Having a small piece of home, in whichever form, felt right. Just like writing that apology did.


	8. Chapter 8

Luvia was up on her feet very early that morning. Among the morning's mail, there was something that made her too restless to sit still. Out by the window, staring at the drizzling rain in the distance, then back to her desk, palms pressed against it, and then more restless pacing about as her emotions circled in a frenzied whirlwind.

First was the anger and indignation at what could be taken as an insult. I said too much. Yes, Rin had, and she'd made a mockery of Luvia as she did so. Now she twisted the knife. I have mocked you and wish to remind you of the fact. That would have been more fitting, more truthful. Such an insult called for blood.

Then came the fear. She was being pushed off balance. Violence, fighting, duels, death and destruction, all those she could stand, but now Luvia's weakness had been exposed. Tohsaka Rin poking at paper with a pen as if she were jabbing at Luvia's soul with a hot poker.

She could well be wrong. Rin might be trying to make peace. Sweet opportunities presented themselves to Luvia in the form of childishly optimistic images of what she could have for herself should she forgive Rin. The vicious cycle came to a full circle as Luvia turned her anger against herself for having those naive thoughts.

There was a knock on the door and Nagaev stepped in. Whatever business he had, she didn't wait to hear about.

Luvia held the letter upright. ”Did you read this?”

”Yes. I thought it might interest you.”

”I said too much! Not even an apology.” Luvia turned around on the spot and swung at the air with the paper in her hand. ”Is that her idea of how to handle this?”

Nagaev had a weary, worried look to him. He thought long of what to say, stepping deeper into the room and taking a look at the rest of the mail that had been strewn about on the bed. ”I think it was meant as an apology.”

”You do? Yes, she said far too much, and now she mocks me by reminding me of that!”

”I learned an important lesson when I was your age.”

”How convenient.”

”When dealing with a woman-”

”She's a mage, not just a woman.”

”Earlier you called her unfit to be one.”

”She is.” Luvia looked away, expecting Nagaev to disagree, to counter with some sensible bit of critique. When he was quiet, she turned her head back at him. ”So, what is this incredible lesson that you have learned?”

”That when dealing with a woman, you can't always get your way.”

Luvia's felt a jolt at the implication, blushed, and tried to hide her reaction by callously turning her back. ”So I should forgive her insult? Is that what you say?”

”No. You can stomp your feet, knock your head back and call her a fool for all you like. Maybe even send assassins after her to prove how right you are about her.”

Ah. That was where her train of thought would eventually lead. The implication doused water on the flame of Luvia's anger. Deflated, she grit her teeth and ran her fingerstips across her forehead. ”That would be excessive.”

”Would it? It is the way how mages respond to insults.”

”It would be too much.”

”Then take the opportunity to settle the matter before you no longer can.”

”My, how convenient. I shall simply inform her and the rest of the Association that I am indeed not a three-headed, fire-breathing monster come to destroy all of magecraft.”

”She is capable of understanding.”

”Is she, now? You think that after first lending her ear to disgusting rumours of me she will somehow change her mind?”

”She is sensible. You insisted on that yourself.”

”I may have been wrong. Too smitten with her to see her flaws. She has turned from a potential ally and resource into something that can be used against me. Yet here I am, unable to decide what to do. Like some schoolgirl overwhelmed by her emotions.”

”Invite her again.”

”Really? Shall I ask her to come wearing a suit? A bowtie on her neck? To bring flowers?”

”If you wish.”

Luvia pulled back a chair beside a small desk and sat down. She folded her arms and shook her head. ” _If I only knew what the fuck I want_ ,” she muttered in Finnish, certain that Nagaev would not understand. ”Fine. I will do it your way.”

”Good. We can have her as an ally still.”

That was never the issue, Luvia thought to herself. The issue is that I might want more where I can find none. ”Is that truly all?”

”She will listen to reason.”

”But will I?”

-

A letter waited for Rin on her floor when she returned from the day's lectures. The next day she sat in that familiar limousine, heading to the Edelfelt mansion for the second time.

There was no fanciful reception, no Luvia waiting to greet her arrival. Only a single maidservant who asked her to follow and lead her to a small room.

Luvia sat by a small table, sipping a glass of wine. She greeted Rin with a curt and reserved nod. ”Was your trip pleasant?” Luvia asked.

”Yes.”

Rin met Luvia's gaze and held it for long. There was a tiny bit of blush on the blonde's face that contrasted with her pale skin. Knowing the uselessness of trying to make more small talk, Rin sat down. She tasted the wine from the glass reserved for her.

”Was it an apology?” Luvia asked.

”Kind of, yes.”

”Kind of?”

”Well, I…” She didn't think herself to be fully at fault, Rin wanted to say. She took a pause, thought of where those words would lead her, and decided that she owed an apology. ”I thought I had the right to ask. I didn't.”

”There is nothing to apologize for. I cannot hold you responsible for whatever rumours you may have heard. However, I did not ask you to come here to discuss the past. I wish to raise the question of your allegiance to me.”

”I gave you my answer.”

”Hastily. Do you know why I wish to have you as my ally?”

”No.”

”You do not trust me, do you?”

”I can't.”

”Yet here you are. Why?”

”Do I really have a choice?”

”You do. I thought I made that abundantly clear the last time we talked.”

”How can I trust what you say?”

”Do you know what it means to not trust among mages? It means a knife held against one's throat.”

”That just means you're holding one on mine. The jewel supply, the help with the departments, you won't give that away for free.”

”Nothing ever is quite free. I have told you what I want from you.”

”My skills and capabilities. But you haven't told me what you need them for.”

”Allow me to explain. Miss Tohsaka, what do all mages strive for?”

”The Root, of course.”

”And how much of that have you seen in your time here?”

The question struck hard at Rin. ”I… I've only been here for a short while, so-”

”Not at all?”

”No.”

”And how much have you seen of bloody politics, of murder, of siblings fighting one another?”

”More,” Rin said under her breath.

”Magecraft is dying,” Luvia said. It was an obvious truth, as normal as the sun rising in the east, but the tone of her voice gave more weight to the fact. ” And if things continue as they stand, it'll die with a whimper, not in a flash of glory.”

”I've seen what ambitious plans to reach The Root can cause. The Grail cost me my parents. An entire city was leveled. If you're planning another insane scheme then I want no part of it.”

”I have no such plans. Even so, I envy the minds who conceived the grail.”

”Do you want to repeat their mistakes?”

”No. I have no desire to emulate failure.”

”Then get to the point.”

”Old blood rules the Association. Circuits stacked upon circuits after centuries of selective breeding. Now bloodlines and alliances are so intertwined that the slightest disagreement turns into wasteful bloodshed and war. We bleed ourselves dry until the Root slips from our pale, cold fingers' grasp.”

Luvia took a pause to sip her wine, waiting for Rin to interrupt, but then continued.

”We are both the result of such means. Yet, we need not have our choices decided for us. I lead a group of mages who share my view and wish to see an end to the decline.”

”I know you're fighting a war. I survived one. Why should I fight another?”

”You will have to choose your side. Considering the company you keep, I wonder why you maintain such distance from me.”

”You spied on me again?”

Luvia slid a dossier over the table. ”Andrea Balcazar. Fourth-generation mage. Spanish. Crippled her brother with poison to secure her own succession.” Luvia flicked her hand dismissively. ”Or, that is what she might be. I cannot be sure without inspecting her crest.”

The blood drained from Rin's face and a cold taste spread over her mouth. ”She…”

”She is a snake. Whether her name is even Andrea or not is up to question. You must choose your side, Rin. Otherwise people like her will-”

”She gave me a bag of tea.”

Luvia froze in the middle of her tirade. It took the time of three heartbeats before she knocked her chair over pouncing up. ”Nagaev! Get the toxicologist, now!”

Rin sat emotionless in her chair. She felt weak, hopelessly weak, somehow detached from the state of panic that swirled in the room around her. Luvia took Rin's hand in hers, checked the nails and pale fingers for telltale signs as her own hands trembled in terror. Rin didn't react as Luvia laid her hands on her neck and checked her eyes as well. She simply couldn't understand why. It couldn't be true. Why would anyone do such a thing?

-

Two cold fingers touched Rin's naked spine between the shoulderblades. The sensation of needles being dragged through her bones and veins spread up and down, then to her head, legs, and arms, finally spreading to the tips of her fingers and toes. She coughed, then a rattle escaped from her throat as the sharp pain turned into a hideous pressure. The pain stopped as abruptly as it had begun and she collapsed forwards on the backless stool, crying out in pain and panting for air.

”It's poison, but can be treated,” the doctor said and began to make notes. He was bald and his skin was marked by patches that looked like burn wounds, but his voice was lively and strong.

”How…” Rin coughed and gasped. The doctor handed her a cup of water which she drank right away. It helped with the feeling in her throat, but not the disgusting taste of metal in her mouth. ”How did it get into my body?”

”It's impossible to say for certain. You mentioned a gift of tea.”

”Yes.”

”A likely but not the only possibility.”

”What else could it be?”

”Anything. The meals you eat, the water you drink, the pillows you sleep on. The leather handle of your handbag.”

Rin went pale in the face.

”Did you check that cup of water I gave you? No, it wasn't poisoned. You're dangerously sloppy. I can only assume that nobody thought you important enough to poison yet.”

”That makes me feel better. Somebody cares enough about me to poison me. Why?”

”I do not know whose toes you have stepped on, but this doesn't look like the usual blackmail or assassination. If someone wanted you dead you would already be. I'd assume that Lady Edelfelt is not the only powerful person interested in you.”

”Why?”

”The poison itself. It's a slow-kill with-”

A knock on the door interrupted him and Luvia stepped into the room without waiting for permission. The doctor's expression turned into a frown, but Luvia stood defiant under his gaze.

”The matter is confidential,” he said.

”It's okay,” Rin said.

”Has she been poisoned?” Luvia looked at both in the room in turn.

”Yes, and it isn't the work of some young amateur. It's a slow-kill venom with magical properties.”

”How long?”

”Two months more minimum.”

”And the treatment?”

”Simple, but… unpleasant.”

”How unpleasant?” Rin began to pull her shirt back on. She caught Luvia glancing her way and the blonde quickly turned her side towards Rin.

”Nausea, insomnia, physical pain, mental distress,” the doctor said. ”Imagine the worst hangover you've ever had and make it last two weeks.”

”Two weeks?”

”Like I said, this isn't the work of some amateur buying back-alley tinctures. The reaction to the antidote is more unpleasant than the poison itself.

”So the poisoner can notice the cure being applied,” Luvia added. ”It is Giuliano. I know it. Two months you say?”

”At the very least. As many as four if the dosage is light.”

”Are you absolutely certain?”

”Yes.”

”Thank you. Please, leave us.”

When the doctor left, any semblance of authority and vigor drained from Luvia. She slumped in on herself, lowering her gaze, and spoke with a quiet voice. ”Rin... please forgive me.”

”There's nothing to forgive.” Rin held her hands out, fingers extended, checking for telltale signs of the venom in her body. There were none. ”But tell me, how long did you know about Andrea?”

”Soon after you arrived. I have had people watch on you for your own safety.”

”Did you always know what she was?

”I was suspicious, but I did not know. Not until you mentioned the tea.”

”You could have told me earlier.”

”Would you have believed? I felt it was a lesson you should learn. There are no true friends in this place.”

”What are you then?”

”An ally, but I… I will let you have the say of that.”

Rin felt something hidden behind those words, but could not discern what. She slid her left sleeve back from the wrist to the elbow and traced the line of the vein down from her wrist to the elbow. No sign of the poison – or the painful scan. ”And this Giuliano? Who is she?”

”The leader of the aristocratic faction. We are locked in a war of assassination.”

”I spoke to Professor Velvet about it and he told me the details.”

”As much as it might suit his ego, there is more at stake here than his tenure as a Professor.”

”How so?”

”I assume you know my family's history.”

”Broadly, yes.”

”I will not attempt to paint it in a more positive tone than it deserves. We killed our way to power, fame and wealth. We watered our roots with blood until they reached far and deep.”

”You're not the only ones.”

”We made the most enemies.” Luvia scarcely seemed to notice Rin's words. ”How well did you know your own father?”

Rin shivered at the question. It was far too personal. Yet, with the answers she herself wanted, she felt obligated to respond. It had been more than a decade. She had been young. She remembered her father, but had never learned to know the man. ”I was a child when he died.”

”My father… his flaw was that he thought a house built with blood and iron could be ruled with wealth and knowledge.” Luvia's entire body tensed at the memory and her voice began to waver. ”His vassals thought otherwise.”

”What happened?” Rin asked, her voice quiet and careful.

”I caused a scandal.”

Rin didn't dare ask what, but Luvia noticed her inquisitive expression.

”I behaved in a manner inappropriate for an heiress and future head of the family. My succession was called to question. They wanted to bring in the son of a retainer and sideline me. Make me no more than a consort. Father disagreed. He abdicated in my favor to force the succession. I was sixteen.”

”Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of it. The family retainers were generous in their help to me. A young girl would need guidance. Was that not why he left Nagaev to watch over me? Yes, they were so helpful that they relieved me of having to sign my own name.”

”A palace coup.”

”Yes. I was not the person I am today. I did not understand what was happening until it was too late, though I am not without fault. What could a young girl have known? The spitting image of her hedonistic grandmother, only even more broken and flawed. Someone who could be manipulated into giving them the killing they wanted. They got it in the end.”

In Rin's eyes, Luvia was no longer quite there. She was away, carried by memories, speaking as much to herself as Rin, eyes glazed, her voice heavy. ”With the help of a handful of loyal retainers, I gave them their wish. First I killed those who sought to make me into a puppet. Then those who sought to exploit the chaos for their own gain. Finally, I killed those who tested my strength. I learned a great deal about myself in those years.”

Rin shivered. Her position had always been secure. Tucked away from the world, she had no servants, no real enemies, no real power either. With every word from Luvia that she heard, she was being interwoven into the bloody conflicts of the Association. Still, she did not want to turn away. She didn't want to turn her back a second time in her life.

”I killed several. Von Anhalt and Nagaev slew the rest. Some ran, telling the tale of a murderous freak who had usurped her father and brought bloodshed to her own family. A degenerate monster.”

”Here I am,” Luvia said. ”Trying to pull you into the inferno I have started. You must leave and save yourself. Anything you need, I will give to you. Use the lands around Fuyuki and bring the Tohsakas to prominence.”

”Tell me one thing, Luvia. Swear to me that it is the truth.”

Luvia blushed. ”What do you-”

”Swear it.”

”I swear it.”

”Have you ever poisoned someone?”

”No,” she answered quickly, with visible relief. ”But I have given many the option to take poison themselves.”

”Luvia, I won't go. I want you to help me kill whoever did this to me.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the egregious delay, but I've felt mentally drained as of late. An increased workload hasn't helped. Anyway, here's another chapter. The next few will most likely be delayed as well. However, they'll be out eventually, as I've outlined the entire story and am already working on the next chapter.

A bloated, heavy drop of water missed Luvia's head and fell on her left collarbone. She shivered in the cool and moist air of the chamber and raised her head to look up at the roof. Condensation formed on the smooth stone pillars and the arch of the domed roof, like the supports of the underground chamber itself were sweating with anxiety. More drops splashed on the floor around her. 

The training chamber was built with the sturdiness of an underground bunker, able to withstand violent discharges of energy. Elaborate discharge systems built into the walls would dissipate the telltale remnants far and wide to ensure that no trace could reveal the techniques performed within. 

Luvia stood outside the Arena, with Von Anhalt by her side. Her toxicologist also stood present, but took his place well away from the pair. The attention of all three focused on the pair occupying the center of the training circle itself. 

Nagaev stood opposite of Rin. Even as Rin assumed her guard Nagaev stood upright without as much a flinch, evaluating her stance with a curious look. He waited, then slowly dropped into a fighting stance himself, all the while waiting for his adversary to make a move of any kind. Rin made none 

Von Anhalt leaned in close. ”Does she wait for a sign?”

”Proceed.” Luvia nodded at Nagaev. 

Tension charged the air. Nagaev reinforced himself with his feet pressed heavily against the floor. Then, before anyone watching could predict, the power in his right foot uncoiled into the unyielding stone slab. He flew forwards without either foot touching the ground, skimming above the perfectly smooth surface. Rin stood strong, unflinching, expecting the feint. Nagaev went high, trying to pull her off guard, but struck low. 

Rin reacted in time. The energy at the point of impact dissipated in a shockwave that echoed off the walls of the chamber. Like rain from the sky after a thunderclap, water fell down from the roof and wet Luvia's hair. 

”You need not have told her everything,” Von Anhalt said and wiped his face with his fingers. He dried them off by a callous whip of his hand.

”Why?”

”The best bait is unaware. Unsuspecting. She will betray with her knowledge of her role.” 

”She is not bait.”

Von Anhalt turned his head closer to Luvia, but could not take his eyes off the match before him. Having parried, blocked and dodged the first few strikes with ease, Rin went forwards herself. Nagaev avoided her first kick. The second he had to parry, his feet skidding backwards as she did.

Luvia smiled. ”Bait is expendable. She is not.”

”Then why use her at all?”

”To make the hunter into the hunted. She herself wishes to do as much.” 

Von Anhalt moved away from Luvia and raised his voice to carry over the din of the echoing shockwaves which made his suit's collar flap. ”But you see it, my lady, don't you? She hesitates after her parry.”

”She has experience.” Luvia said as another blast gripped her hair. 

”She is no killer.”

”She will be taught.” But not by you, Luvia thought. You would remake her in your image. You would teach her how to kill the body and the spirit. How to never trust the word of another, how to betray, how to poison words and actions. All that and much worse, but that is not my image of her. 

Even so, Von Anhalt was right. Rin defended expertly, her confident movements bearing witness to what must have been painful lessons. But, when Nagaev returned to his guard after each assault, her counterattack lacked intent. She fought to protect herself, and she did that well. Nagaev struck again, varying the pattern of kicks and punches. With each repetition his retreat became sloppier and sloppier, leaving an opportunity so obvious and telegraphed that Rin had to react to exploit it. She did, striking at his exposed neck, but her commitment to the strike was lacklustre.

”Those are not the movements of a killer,” Von Anhalt said.

”Something which we will correct. Nagaev!” Luvia waved her hand to end the session. Nagaev reacted quickly and made the customary bow, to which Rin replied warily. 

An aide walked to the circle and offered cups of water to them both. Nagaev bore his exhaustion with the solemnity of an old war horse. He took the towel offered to him with little emotion, touching his face lightly with it more out of habit than actual need. Rin, though, looked elated, exhausted, and satisfied at having had the opportunity to properly stresss herself. Her reddened face was slick with perspiration and she drank heavily from the cup of water offered to her. 

Luvia could only envy her enthusiasm. She admired the way how satisfied Rin looked with her own performance and felt that her own critical eye towards was unfair. Still, Rin deserved to know. She needed to know.

”Splendid performance. Nagaev expressed concern beforehand, but you performed well.”

”Just well?” Rin shook her hair and wiped her forehead. 

Luvia tensed up. Rin had meant it as a joke, but had gotten to the heart of the matter by accident. ”There is some room for improvement in your counterattacks.”

”Oh.”

”A minor flaw to correct, that is all.” 

Rin drank heavily, taking heavy breaths in between, her body working hard to pull oxygen into her fatigued muscles. She spilled a few drops from the sides of her mouth and then held out the cup to a servant who gave her a tiny towel. ”Haah… I could really use a shower.”

”This way to the baths. Please.”

Rin followed Luvia and wiped her face with the towel as the blonde lead the pair off towards the baths nearby. ”About that flaw-”

”We will discuss the matter at length later. How are you feeling?”

”Exhausted, but great. I saw the doctor was there.”

”Yes. Since you showed no signs of any ill health, he has decided to postpone your treatment. That way, we will gain surprise on our foe.”

”Won't the poison be an issue?”

”No. My toxicologist will stake his reputation on it.”

”His reputation and my life.”

”If you refuse then-”

”No no no.” Rin held up and waved her hand dismissively. ”Anything to help me get back at them.” She looked around and held up the towel in her hand. ”Hey, where can I put this?” 

”Anywhere. The servants will handle it.”

Rin folded away the towel onto a small bench and walked into the changing room. A gust of warm, humid air escaped when the thick wooden door opened. Luvia pulled her shoulders back, tightening her stomach and tensing her entire body to stop herself from peeking as Rin went. 

She opened her eyes only when the door shut loudly before her. 

-

Luvia's hand left a messy, thick imprint on the polished wooden desk. The anticipation alone made her hands clammy with discomfort. Von Anhalt and Nagaev sat around the table with her, the former towards her left and the latter to the right. 

”Speak frankly, Nagaev,” Luvia said.

”Acceptable. Flawed, but acceptable.”

”There you have it. She is fit for my service.

”I disagree. While we know that she is trained in self-defence and jewelry magic. Her survival of the Fuyuki ritual would imply some combat experience. However, she spent her formative years among non-mages. As her poisoning shows, she is naive, vulnerable, and potentially a liability to us.”

Luvia felt the urge to scold the man for not seeing value in anything but in that which could kill. ”A result of her upbringing. Her flaws can be corrected.”

”In due time, possibly, but… there is another option.”

”Explain.”

”You believe in your assessment of her potential, but we have yet to confirm it.” Von Anhalt traced a circle with his extended fingers, marking the pause in his speech. ”She trusts our toxicologist. You could have him perform an examination of her crest under the guise of treatment. Should her talent be significant, we can proceed to utilize it through… other means.”

”She might well notice the attempt. But why should we take the risk? How could we utilize her potential without her approval?” Luvia asked, worried where her retainer's idea would lead. Most of the time, his solutions were remarkably simple, predictable, and effective. Why now, then, would he have an unpredictable one? She knew the look in his eye, the white flame that would spark whenever an idea would particularly excite him. There was no sign of it. He appeared calm and clear-headed.

”Strip her mind,” he said.

”What?”

”Strip her of her consciousness and use her as an incubator. That will secure the contents of her crest for our family with none of the risk. The resulting child can then be introduced to a suitable bloodline of our clan.”

Luvia had thought her stomach was strong. Von Anhalt was less than ten years her senior, yet he suggested an idea that would make a mage flinch. Worst of all, he was correct. His idea offered the least risk and the most easily controlled reward. 

Steeling herself, she entertained the idea. A thought this foul wouldn't be allowed to slip without getting to the source. ”And which bloodline did you have in mind?” she asked even as Nagaev eyed her in disbelief, fully expecting Von Anhalt to name his own. Audacious as he was, he didn't have the cunning for intrigue of this sort. Some of those who once possessed that skill had died by his hand and Luvia's command. 

”None. It's not possible to plan for that yet.”

”Who suggested this idea to you?”

”It is mine.”

It might well be, Luvia reasoned. ”Should it ever be discussed outside these walls, I want one thing to be made clear – any further discussion of the matter is forbidden by my command. On pain of death, should that be necessary.”

Von Anhalt was as unfazed as he was by suggesting the idea. He nodded courteously, as politeness dictated him to acknowledge her command. ”I understand. Then I suggest that we strike at the entire clan. 48 hours is enough to move from our current stance into an all-out assault.”

”An all-in assault,” Nagaev added.

”When a lion kills a rabbit, it uses all its strength.” Von Anhalt rubbed his thumb and fingertips together. "Why should we hold back?”

Luvia had to only close her eyes to see what he meant. Murder in the night and the dark corners of the world, that was the way how mages had always settled their disputes. A new day dawned in mages like Von Anhalt, who would take their quarry at day, who paid no mind to following the forms set by tradition. Death under the sun, with mages fighting in organized groups, leaving no weapon unused. ”There are laws and traditions.”

”Then we shall make new laws.”

”And How many days do you think it will take? From the moment when I stand atop the ruins of Giuliano's palace to a sealing designation being handed to me? ”

”Three or four days,” Nagaev answered.

”Three or four days. I can imagine the wording being most flattering,” Luvia said. She began to recite from memory, stiffening her posture as she did. ”In recognition of your remarkable strength, and in light of the importance to thaumathurgy that your personage may blah blah blah…”

Luvia watched as Von Anhalt realized his mistake. In doing so, he showed one of his better qualities: he held his temper rather than lash out and defend a worthless idea. He shifted his tie. ”I understand.”

”You do not, nor do I expect you to. Nothing would delight me as much as impaling her on a sharp stick, but we cannot fight the Church as well. Indiscriminate killing brought us into this mess. It will not extract us from it.”

”If the old ways must die, it can't be by our hand.” Nagaev pulled his hand back from the table and touched his jaw. ”Not when so much of our opposition is because of our affiliation with the meritocratic block.” 

Luvia sensed the opportunity to put an end to the discussion and seized it. She pushed her chair backwards and stood up. ”The meeting is adjourned.”

She stood tense until both her retainers vacated the room. Neither waited another command to begin performing the tasks expected of them. The plan to use Rin would move ahead, and still, the one who deserved to know the most knew precariously little. Was Von Anhalt insane or had Luvia lost her ability to reason? The endless conundrum of being a mage: having to wonder whether your lack of humanity lead you to insanity for its own sake, or if sentimentality clouded judgment.

Rin deserved to know, and Luvia hurried into the baths to tell her. After that, she'd take a bath to relax her nerves, whether Rin still sat there or not. But wouldn't that be improper? Or would it be more improper to think that Rin might not- 

Luvia shook her head to clear her thoughts before the door to the changing room. ”Rin?” She knocked and stepped in as no reply came. Rin wasn't there. The servants had not yet gotten to the towels and clothing. Tsk. Not good enough. 

The towel felt warm against her hands. Was it moist with Rin's sweat or the humid air leaking from the baths? She pressed it tight against her nose to get at the inviting odor. Ah, scented towels were such frivolous waste.


	10. Chapter 10

Rin couldn't tell whether the Edelfelt mansion was more of a palace than a mansion. Her room, the guest room, felt more like a house. Raindrops falling against the window interrupted the comfortable silence. The mansion was quiet, but she knew for certain that in more than one room, plans were being refined and plots prepared. She only hoped that none would be against her.

A wordless servant girl brought her a small evening meal. Neither broke the silence as Rin did her best to not mind the girl's presence without quite succeeding, noticing how she too snuck a few nervous glances Rin's way. Once she left, it took Rin a few nervous minutes to dare touch the food. Worried thoughts of poison wormed into her head until she dismissed them. She tried to discern the manner in which the girl had looked at her, whether it was as an honored guest, prisoner, or lurking enemy.

There was a bookcase, a few countryside paintings and a small statuette on the only desk. Without her presence as a mage, the room could be that of any innocuous countryside manor. It was only her presence that made mockery of the delicate illusion.

A heavy chest of gemstones sat on the desk. She took a seat and lifted the lid to inspect the contents. Ahe jewel chilled her fingers and palm as Rin opened and clenched her fingers tight around it. Perspiration from her hand stuck to the smooth surface, which remained grippy and angular. Even when charged with magical energy to the limits of its structural integrity, the gemstone felt as cold and dead in her hand as the glorified piece of mineral that it was.

There were twenty more hidden on her person. Twenty little bundles of violent force ready to rend and sear flesh, shatter stone, or freeze an object solid – anything she wanted. The angles on it were sharp, but not sharp enough to cut. She ran her thumb along the point of the stone and felt only a mild discomfort.

Much of her life she'd spent looking at little bundles of energy like it. A mistake with one could kill. An overcharged gem could explode in a mage's face like a faulty ammunition cartridge. There were no obvious safety mechanisms like the pin on a grenade. Everything rested on the coolness of her nerves.

It gripped at her stomach to finally slip the gem into a pocket. She couldn't deny herself what she'd been able to in the past, the fact that she carried those gems so she could kill. It didn't matter that without them she was defenceless. Carrying a gun would have been more honest.

There was a knock on the door.

”Who's there?”

”It is me.”

Luvia stepped into the room. In her hand she carried a heavy necklace laden with jewels. She closed the door behind her and then reached behind her neck to close the necklace, raising her hair up as she did. It was more of a chain than a necklace, with room for two dozen gemstones of varying types and lethality.

”I came to wish you luck,” she said.

”Thank you. But aren't you putting yourself at more risk than I am?”

”No. I only need you to present a facade for a few days. Live the routine you always have and do your best to appear… naive.”

Rin sighed and turned another jewel between her fingers, trying to see her own reflection in it. ”I did a good enough job of that earlier without even trying.”

”Then you will know how to avoid making that mistake in the future.”

”It's okay, Luvia. You tried to tell me. If I run into her, what will I do?”

”Before you discovered the truth, did you ever trust her fully?”

”No. I mean, I thought I didn't.” It felt so foolish to look back on it, on what she'd thought was a sensible amount of distrust when dealing with a new acquiantance. Andrea had walked into her life with a hurried speed so fast that it couldn't be up to chance. There wasn't only regret, shame, and a feeling of being used. There was also anger, and from that anger came more concrete thoughts and desires.

”I don't know if I can do it,” Rin said. ”When I think of her I want to tear hear eyes out and-”

Luvia cut Rin short. She took her hand, raising it in her palm. ”Hold that anger close to you. Keep it near, stoke the flame, and let it burn when you take your vengeance.”

”I… I'll try.” Rin nodded, nervously pulling her hand back from Luvia's hand. ”But what about you? Why can't you stay safe for a few days?”

”I must make my appearance at the Clocktower.”

”Why? Won't they understand that-”

”They would understand, but this is not a rational matter. I cannot hide myself, no matter what kind of struggle is being fought in the shadows.”

”Don't you worry? I'm nervous about you. About everything.”

”You have been through worse, have you not?”

”Yes but… it's different now.” Reminding herself of what she'd survived didn't do much to assuade herself of the situation. The Clocktower at day was a very different place from what the empty streets of nightly Fuyuki had been. The threat felt so much more real now that she understood what it truly meant. ”How do you handle it? The feeling that you're in danger?”

”You will get used to it. Given enough time, there is nothing the human mind will not grow accustomed to. If the feeling worries you, remind yourself that it is better to be anxious and stressed than unaware of the danger.”

Luvia's words made sense, but emotional distress wouldn't listen to rationality. Rin set the jewel down on the desk and pushed her chair back. She took a glance at Luvia and then turned around to look out the window. ”Yes, but when you need to wait for the fighting to begin? How do you handle it?”

Luvia put her hand up on Rin's shoulder from behind. ”Breathe.”

”I-I am!”

”With your stomach.”

”I know how,” Rin snapped. She did. The simplest of exercises, yet so difficult. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips tight together, drawing a deep breath through her nose. The smell of the old books in the room felt heavy in the air. A steady warmth spread into her body, a kind of warmth she was unused to dealing with in the closeness of another person.

She had almost found her rhytm when she felt Luvia's hand on her side.

”You're making this more difficult,” she said.

”Shh. Breathe in against my hand.” Luvia's hand moved over her stomach.

Rin took a sharp breath.

”Slower. Deeper.”

The smell of the old books faded, replaced with something else.

”Much better.”

The hand slipped away right as Rin hoped it wouldn't. She felt better. Focused. Calm. The warmth was still there, simmering.

Luvia moved her hand away right as Rin began to ease into the embrace. A touch, not an embrace, she reminded herself. The stress made her mind jump to conclusions.

”When will I see you next?” Rin asked.

”In a few days, maybe sooner if our quarry is careless. One of my mages will track and capture Balcazar as soon as she shows her face. You might catch of a glimpse of me on the grounds, but…”

”I understand.”

Luvia lingered a moment, looking a slightly expectant, as if expecting Rin to say more or thinking of something to say herself. She removed a sapphire ring from her right hand, the only one she wore. ”Take this. For good luck.”

”Luck?” Rin held stone engraved to the ring close to her eye. A seal of some sort had been chiseled into it. ”It's beautiful,” she said and slipped it into her finger.

”Someone might recognize it if you wear it in public, but I want you to have it.”

”I can't take it.”

”Please.”

Rin slid the ring onto her finger. If fit her like it were her own. With a sigh she removed it and placed it in her pocket. ”I have nothing to give you in return.”

”Promise me you will stay safe.”

”I will.”

With that, Luvia slowly turned her back and left.

-

Rin left after dusk. A vehicle carried her close to the Clocktower where she slipped back onto the grounds like so many others returning under the supposed cover of darkness. She came upon another wave of young students slipping off into the night. None noted her passing with interest.

The chatter in the hallways and passages of the Clocktower had grown more worried and subdued. A deep nervousness set among their ranks and where the young mages and hopefuls once eyed their peers with suspicion and contempt, they now acted as if every footstep signaled a coming assassin.

Rin only needed to close her eyes to feel the chill in the air and the dread hung in the air like miasma. The Clocktower had never been a welcoming place, but in the months before, students could at least escape the stifling air by devoting themselves to learning and study. That had changed. The stillness stifled Rin's breath as she walked through the library. Nobody wanted to be caught alone. She noticed only a single group of students, half a dozen in total, who nervously eyed her as she walked past on her way back to the dormitories.

Knowing how much danger she had been in made Luvia's behaviour that much understandable. She could no longer blame Luvia much at all for having made the sensible precaution of having someone watch over her. Someone else had done the same, and bothered to poison Rin as a generous display of affection. She didn't know what she'd do if she would see Andrea. She hadn't seen her for a few days, and that had Luvia and her retainers worried. In truth, after her transfer, she only saw Andrea once or twice a week.

Rin tapped the hidden pockets in which she'd hidden the gems, trying to reassure herself with the feeling of the protection they offered. It didn't work. Feeling them against her fingertips only served to remind her that whoever she would face would be carrying the same thing and worse.

What if Luvia was the one who was trying to make use of her? It would have been so much easier to believe the worst of her, that the Edelfelt heir was the one trying to make a fool out of Rin. Everything was easier than having to admit to herself how wrong she had been and how close to death her own actions had brought her.

She would bring Luvia the tea. If that turned out to be the source of the poison, a major piece for the puzzle would fall in to place. But couldn't Luvia simply falsify that as well? It was impossible to trust Luvia in earnest. Even after her request of help, she couldn't do so. The revelation of Andrea's duplicity had shocked her to the core. She now regarded with the highest suspicion her own sudden shift to taking Luvia's words at face value.

I'm worth something, she thought. That was the key. Why would anyone bother with poison otherwise? A small bribe, theft, a nasty rumour could have been enough to ruin her when she was fresh off the airplane and still dizzy taking her bearings in. And such a fancy method, too. Assuming of course that Luvia spoke the truth.

She'd give the blonde a chance. The tea would tell her how it really stood. Luvia deserved a chance. Everyone deserves one. It's only fair.

-

The quiet stress of having to wait chipped away at Luvia's resolve like drops of waters on gray rock. More waiting, more anxiety, more time for a small chink in her armor to develop into a deadly crack. Politics didn't allow for absence. No matter what opposed it, no movement could survive without a banner around which to rally.

The motorcade prepared for departure on the grounds with tired familiarity. Nagaev took his place with her inside the second to last vehicle. She'd planned for everything. Nothing unaccounted for, yet she felt like Caesar himself walking to the senate.

Gaius Julius Caesar died on the senate floor. At the height of his power, on the Ides of March, he bore his toga without armor and walked into the sanctum. Twenty times they stabbed him. The Clocktower is my senate, she thought, these streets its marble floors, the mages eying me the senators. I have nothing to fear. Who will be my Brutus? Not Rin, that is for sure. And I wear armor when Caesar didn't. In that, I am his superior. Luvia allowed herself a moment of mirth as she thought of what the great conqueror himself might say were his spirit called back to life.

The vehicled rolled gently forwards and Luvia grasped her hands together, touching her finger where the ring was supposed to be. Thoughtless, childish bribery. The ring in exchange for not being able to open her mouth and tell the disgusting truth that there were people who'd treat Rin with less dignity than that afforded to an animal.

”I did not tell her,” Luvia said. She folded her arms tight together to hide the absence of the ring from view in vain hope that Nagaev hadn't long since noticed its absence.

”It might be for the better, but why?”

”She has enough on her mind as it is. We all do.” Luvia turned her head away to show how she had no desire to discuss the matter, not when she'd have to answer questions she herself didn't have the resolve to face. Why? Why focus on hopeless delusions when murderous wills bored down on her and plotted her death? If she had the gall to pretend to have changed, then why act like the lovesick fool that had almost ruined her clan? If Rin knew it all, she would hate Luvia for it.

_I will only ruin her like I ruined Marie.  
_

Luvia took a deep breath to stop the sudden outburst of anxiety gaining strength. After two more she gripped the seatrest tight and spoke up. ”Tell the driver to take the long route. I will need a moment.”

Nagaev nodded and passed word to the driver. Out ahead the convoy began to pull off towards smaller roads. Luvia resisted the uge to bite her teeth and worsen the feeling, to let go and swim with the current. But just as the woods around the road opened up into a clearing, the worst of it let go.

Nagaev interrupted her moment of respite. ”You're getting worse.”

”Quiet!”

”Your father's state worsened too when you were born. I pretended not to notice. I won't make that same mistake now.”

”Fine! What would you have me do? You think there is something, anything that I have not tried?”

Nagaev slowly sook his head, clearly as uncomfortable with the exchange as Luvia was. ”It threatens you. It threatens us.”

”Us? Nagaev, I had thought that of all the mages of our clan, you might see me as more than a vessel for the crest!”

”I do! Why else would you father have-”

Luvia didn't hear what he had to say. A shockwave crashed against the vehicle and flipped it onto its side. The windows cracked but held as the metal screeched against what remained of the asphalt. It felt as if the vehicle didn't slow at all, until it finally shunted against the bottom of the crater. With one final creak of the reinforced structure it rolled over onto it's back.

Nagaev reacted first. Pushing himself onto his side inside the vehicle, he kicked against the door and sent it flying off into the distance.

All happened without a sound. Luvia sook her head and realized that the shockwave had robbed her of her earing. She touched her ears with her hand, finding no blood to mark a burst eardrum. She felt no pain and as she patted down her body she found no signs of injury. All her limbs worked.

Nagaev shouted at her. Luvia shook her head and took his hand as he helped her out of the stricken vehicle.

The heavy dust and asphyxiating, noxious smoke hung in the air. The smell of burnt metal stung at her head. The bottom of the crater was three or four metres deep and she struggled her way up the slope. Her mages rallied around her and one jumped down to extricate the driver. Luvia turned her head back to look as the man was pulled from the vehicle alive but blinded and marked by flash burn in his face.

Nagaev put his hand at on her shoulder and gestured towards the open ground in front.

A dozen mages charged towards her. Only a dozen against the six that still stood by Luvia's side. At the fore of the pack she recognized Zirinsky's face, the jubilant look on it as he led a strike group onwards, eager to finish the ambush and make his name immortal as the one to slay an Edelfelt.

One last mockery towards me, Luvia thought as her own mages closed around her. It would have been too much to expect Giuliano herself to dirty her hands, but she wouldn't even send her lapdog Anhäuser.

Luvia seized several gemstones from her necklace in a single movement and hurled them at the approaching foe. With violent explosions of ice and fire, pure energy erupted among their ranks. They held their ground as best they could, defending themselves with barriers. Some stood firm against the onslaught, others struggled, one was torn away in like a young tree in a whirlwind. Zirinsky came at her, unhurt, all the projectilves having cleared well above and around him exactly as Luvia had planned. Hearing slowly returned to her ears, allowing her to sense more than the dull thuds of the explosions.

No-one but Luvia remembered. Zirinsky charging forward, Luvia's own mages holding steadfast, not even Nagaev. All had forgotten how her ancestor had first earned their noble rank.

Uttering no sound, making no boisterous war cry, Luvia went forwards in one swirl of reinforcement magic. Fast as an arrow, with inertia matching the potency of her ancestral blood, she crashed into Zirinsky. He recoiled from her blow, staying well on his feet, but couldn't stop Luvia's next move. Using the majority of her remaining jewels, she launched them directly into the ground and gave him his wish.

The boundary field took shape around them and sealed them both inside within a space no more than four metres wide. Zirinsky paused in place as he saw the trap be sprung, but he showed no sign of panic on his face. Baring his teeth, he reached for his pocket and Luvia prepared herself to counter a spell. He drew no gemstone or mage's weapon. He drew a knife.

So much for the honor of the old ways.

He held the advantage now. Beyond the barrier blood was spilt and flesh was rent from bone in a whirlwind of boundless violence and brutality. She couldn't wait him out, not with much of her supply exhausted to isolate her foe. She could only show him how foolish he was to underestimate her.

She charged at him. Their fight was not one of mages, but that of two wills locked together in desperate struggle to see the other fall, both delirious with adrenaline and the closeness of death. It was impossible to avoid the minor cuts that the blade drew on her arms and body. Zirisnky was fast, skilled with the blade, but not quite fast enough to catch her for the lethal, aorta-cutting strike that would see her blood mark the ground as the site of his glory. For every missed strike, for every slightest error, Luvia struck back at him with reinforced strikes against his torso, aiming to shatter the organs and flood his body with such pain that no magic or medication could stop it.

His time ran up. He stumbled once and that would have been enough had he not held the blade. Luvia closed in for the kill, for one lethal strike to dislocate his neck with brute force. He caught her halfway with one lacklustre, desperate stab at her gut. The double-edged blade pierced easily past the layers of cloth and penetrated halfway. At that moment, the runes embroidered into the undershirt fulfilled their task: they split asunder and absorbed the spell bound to the blade.

Luvia reeled back, staggering on her feet. Zirinsky panted, barely hlding his own body together. Confident of his kill, already looking jubilant with the thought of his achievement, he tried to end it with a single strike and save his life before the fight outside the barrier turned in the Edelfelt's favor.

Luvia had time enough to dodge the knife aimed for her throat with a nimble movement backwards. The blade cut the side of her cheek and drew a mess of blood. He went forwards for one last murderous lunge to catch Luvia before she recovered.

He was too late. Luvia avoided the lunge with ease and then sidestepped the second thrust, taking his wrist in her hand and yanking him forwards out of balance. Zirinsky stumbled forwards with one foot, and then Luvia struck. Reinforcement magic swirled and she drove her reinforced heel against the exposed knee. Bone snapped, sinew tore, and the entire joint buckled in with a stomach-turning crunch. Luvia didn't hear it – the scream of pain blocked it out.

Controlling the shoulder, Luvia brought him face down on the ground and pinned him down by driving her knee between the shoulder blades. In a whiplash of uncontrolled, adrenaline-singed fury, she smashed her fist into the back of the Zirinsky neck. The vertebrae were torn from their place and made a crimson pulp of the veins and muscles in their way. There was nothing to block out the sound.

Luvia pushed herself up from the body and swayed from side to side. She should have let him live. A prisoner would have been invaluable. Blood flowed from her cheek onto her tongue. That meant the cheek had been cut through, right? Blood stained her cheek and the grass that rustled against her face with sickening warmth. What was he saying? Who…

As unconsciousness bestowed its mercy upon her, she felt a deep sense of relief. It was over. She had done it all, given her all. No more. No more.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while. I wanted to have it out a week ago, but the chapter ended up being much longer than I expected. It's the longest thus far.

Rin made her way outside the dormitories and headed towards the Department of Mineralogy in the chilly morning air. Lack of sleep numbed her senses and irritated her temperament. The threat Luvia was putting herself in worried Rin enough that she had time to think of little else. No matter her feelings, Rin would have to maintain her own routine like Luvia did. They would soon have their chance to hit back, but before that could happen, Rin had to spend a few more days pretending to be an unassuming student of the Clocktower.

A crowd blocked her way right outside the department of Mineralogy. Nervous students eyed the entrance which remained clear. Two mages stood beside it. Both wore suits and had a small pin on their collar. She couldn't see whether it was an emblem or some other symbol, but it glittered with a bright color.

Rin turned her head and looked off to the side. Four mages now stood guard at the crossing, on the way to the Department of Modern Magecraft Theories.

A coup. It had to be. Every mage had that same collar pin that now took the characteristics of an armband.

People began to run. A fight could well have ensued as young students pushed each other out of the way. The crowd stirred like boiling water in a kettle and then dissipated into fleeing groups. When the clearing was empty, Rin felt the look of one of the mages upon her.

She didn't stop to wait and see whether she was paranoid or rightfully concerned. She fled and did her best to disappear into the flow of fleeing students.

By the dormitories she pushed her way out to the side. A painful kick in the shin made her wince with pain. Her heart leapt as she turned around to meet her attacker, but none came as the crowd kept rushing onward. Someone had bumped into her in the chaos.

Rin headed into the dormitories, soon coming up to the corner towards her room. She turned the corner, but never made it. A sharp punch caught her in the side. Her body simply wouldn't obey her command to stand up and fight as the pain flooded her body and made her fall to her arms and knees, opening her mouth to breathe like a beached fish. A wet cough cleared her throat and she cried out in pain at regaining her voice.

A strong grip on her collar pulled her up to her weak feet and Rin felt cold metal pressed flat beside her neck. She heard Andrea's voice.

”The tip doesn't have to pierce the skin to kill you. Up, up on your feet and move.”

Rin barely registered which way Andrea forced her as the pain still clouded her senses. Ragged breaths rattled against her windpipe as her feet took her forwards with the fumbly steps of a drunkard, soles slapping heavily against the floor. They passed through a doorway and inside she saw three mages waiting for her.

A woman dressed more for the ballroom than battle stood in the middle, flanked on both sides by two men. The one on his right wore a suit, but the one on her left stood out with the dark leather coat he wore.

”Kneel.” Andrea pressed her shin against the back of Rin's knee, forcing Rin painfully against the stone floor. The shock made her grit her teeth and flinch.

The lady standing in the middle extended her hand and gestured to the side with her fingers. ”Good work, Balcazar. Loosen the knife. I do not want her to harm herself with it.”

”As you wish.” Andrea let the knife slide away from Rin's neck. Despite her knee swelling up with pain, Rin could at last breathe. Hurriedly, Andrea too knelt down, muttering apologies.

”That is quite enough, Balcazar. You shall have your reward.” She lowered her hand and looked down upon Rin. ”And you, Tohsaka Rin, what shall I do with you?”

Rin forced herself to stop biting at her teeth and turned her head up to look. ”Who are you and what do you want?

”I am Claudia Giulano. You might not know me, but you know what I have done. Your dear tutor must have told you.”

”He did. I'm glad for that.”

”First of all, I would have answers.” Giuliano stepped forwards and glanced back over her shoulder at her mages. ”What kind of offer did she make you?”

”Who?”

”Do not act coy with me. Luviagelita Edelfelt ensured your acceptance to the Department of Mineralogy. Why?”

”I don't know.”

”What did she ask for in return?”

”Nothing.”

”Oh my, nothing at all? Please, you may speak frankly with me. Hearing of her deprativities and brutality has long since ceased to faze me. Nothing is ever enough for her. Did she force herself on you?”

”She didn't want anything! How would I know what she wants from me?”

”No? And I had thought you were precisely her type.” Low, sycophantic chuckles came from both her bodyguards. Andrea didn't join in as she stood tensely beside Rin, knife still at the ready. ”What else could you have to offer? I do my best to understand her thinking. You are much like the other miscreants and troublemakers of our Association that she has taken an interest in. The rabid dog Von Anhalt, the demagogue El-Melloi who perverts his own name, and now you, a yellow ape.”

”Fuck you!” Rin struggled against Andrea's grip until the coldness of the metal against her skin restrained her.

”Vulgar and unrefined beneath the surface. I can see why she likes you. You have much in common.” Giuliano turned sideways towards Rin and ran her finger along her own chin. ”I will forgive your naivete on reason of your background. You have not seen the years of bloodshed and conflict that the Edelfelts have wrought. They stoke the flames of chaos, ruin families and legacies that span centuries, and then feast on the corpses. Instead of helping her bring forth the greatest catastrophy to magecraft since the French Revolution, you have the chance to step aside and live a comfortable life in my service.”

Giuliano held her hand out. ”Submit and serve me, and you shall have everything you could ever wish for. Tutors, manuscripts, artefacts, catalysts… the possessions of an upstart pale in comparison to ours.”

”They do, huh?” Rin grinned meanly at Giuliano. The danger of the situation made her feel reckless, mad. Having a razor held against your throat tended to skew a person's capability for long-term planning. ”How about you take those possessions and go fuck yourself with them?”

”Why refuse? You are nothing but a curiosity to her, a worthless Oriental who bears the name of their greatest defeat. The Tohsakas and their schemes in Fuyuki have brought the Association nothing but ruin. Kayneth, a true patrician, one of the foremost of our kind – dead for nothing. Now a demagogue desecrates his name. Accept my offer. Surrender yourself, your lands, and the Grail ritual. Correct the wrongs your mindless scheme has brought.”

”Just kill me and get it over with.” Rin yanked her neck away from Andrea's grip. The blade made a tiny cut in her neck and sobered her head.

”Kill you? No, I did not go through the trouble of poisoning you so that you could die. Balcazar performed her task admirably well.” Giuliano nodded towards Andrea, who responded with a small bow. ”You will not die, no. Your spirit will rot away until the vessel alone remains for me to use as I see fit. Not even that bit of her wretched blood in your veins will save you.”

”What blood?”

”You do not know? See how little she thinks of you. In time you will understand. Now you must choose – either the gilded cage or mindless servitude. I mean the latter quite literally.”

Rin remembered how she had thought Luvia cold, distant, inhuman, and cursed herself for having ever been so foolish. The spine of the blade pressed down against her shoulder, tingling with a vile sensation. In truth, it was all the same. Even if they permitted her, Rin would never pursue magecraft for the sole benefit of another. The alternative meant an existence just as worthless.

She raised her head, grimacing, thinking of some ploy, some method by which she could gain perhaps a second's respite to get to the jewels hidden in the seam of her skirt.

A blast tore through the room and made her chest tighten with pressure. She turned her head away and raised her arm to shield her face, forgetting Andrea by her side. Debris made up of small bits of stone and wood crashed against her. She opened her eyes and saw how an explosion had torn open the wall to her left. A cloud of thick dust and smoke still hung in the air by the gap.

The mage by Giuliano's right side had taken the worst of the blast. Like a drunken man he struggled to stay on his fleet, clutching at a foot-long splinter of wood that had embedded itself into his gut. Giuliano was shouting.

A man lunged forwards from the smoke.

He first struck at the mage on Giuliano's right, incapacitating him with a single lethal punch to the throat. Before the body had fallen to the ground, he charged at Giuliano. Another gust of air struck against Rin and broke her out of the passive trance she had been shocked into. It was Von Anhalt. His mages, a mere three in total, followed him from the breach and threw themselves against Giuliano and her remaining guard.

Andrea remained dumbstruck. She paid for her sluggishness by taking a painful punch to her side from Rin who seized the opportunity for a cheap shot. Andrea groaned and backed up, her stance foiled by the pain in her side. The knife slipped from her fingers and clattered against the stone tiles.

Rin could have ended it quickly by reinforcing her blows and going for the knockout. She didn't. Andrea tried in vain to shield herself from the painful blows, but her agonized voice cried out above the chaos to mark every strike. Rin took her time, easily seeing through the paltry defence. One blow struck at the torse, the next at her face, the third a painful kick in the shin – each strike strong and vicious, none strong enough to finish her. Fatigued, in pain, her arms soon hung low. Invigorated with all the pleasure of her cathartic rage, ducked under the clumsy punch and closed in to smash her fist into Andrea's chin and drive her knee into the chest.

Andrea crashed onto her back, hurting her elbow as she caught her fall and tried to stagger up again. Rin moved closer, hesitating, unsure what to do with her as Andrea reached behind her back for support. The fight had ended. Not even magecraft had been necessary. A single gandr shot could end her. But why? She'd already won.

Rin glanced over her shoulder. The cacophony of the fight behind her settled down. Giuliano and her bodyguard retreated. Von Anhalt turned to look at Rin and then charged toward her.

He lunged past Rin and struck at Andrea She made no attempt to raise her hand to defend herself, still reaching for something on her waist. His fist struck her squarely on the jaw and she fell down to the floor, her head taking a heavy hit.

”Nrgh... you… you miserable bastard I'll… gah!” Her voice was cut short as Von Anhalt stepped on her right hand and knelt beside her to frisk her body. Finding nothing, he flipped her onto her back and slid his hand under her shirt. There it was, in a holster inside the waistband.

He took the pistol in his hand. The magazine's release was on the heel, and it slid comfortably out of the grip and into his hand. ”Hollow points… I should put one of these in your own head.”

”Go on,” she said, her face bruised. ”Do it! Finish what Reinhold started!”

”Lord El-Melloi! Time to move.” Von Anhalt shouted to the breach. He held Andrea down and bound her wrists behind her back.

Rin turned her head towards the breach in the wall. Lord El-Melloi carefully stepped inside and took in the sight in. He shook his head tiredly.

”What the hell is going on?!” Rin interjected, blocking Von Anhalt off.

Von Anhalt stepped around her and knelt beside the dead mage's body. He layed his hand on the bent neck and violet tendrils lashed out from his fingertips, leaving a burn mark on the body. ”They ambushed Luvia's vehicle while she was on her way to the Clocktower. I don't know the details, but I'd bet my head that they used conventional explosives.” He wiped the grime from his hand on the dead mage's suit and stepped up, knacking his fingers. ”She proved tougher than they thought. Idiots.”

He turned around on the spot and took a more commanding tone. ”Moore, Lindvall, take this bitch with you and escape through the grounds. We can't have her slowing us down in the catacombs. Fight it out if you must. Don't hesitate to kill her if she becomes a problem. Lehto, we'll use the connecting passage. That'll buy us some time while they seal off the exits to the grounds and downtown. Let's move.”

Moore stepped forwards and took Andrea with him. After a single flash of magic Andrea's body went limp and he picked her up to sling her over his shoulder.

The group split up at the first opportunity, and Rin's group headed deeper into passages she had never used. Lehto, the young blonde woman, lead the way. She had a frail build and a quiet, distant voice. When moving fast, she almost blurred with her surroundings. Rin noted how everyone tracked her as much by the low rhyme she sang to herself as they did by her elusive appearance.

Soon the group came upon a flat wall.

”Dead end?” Rin asked.

”Not for Lehto. Watch.”

Lehto's voice echoed in the hallway as she began her incantation. Rin didn't understand a word of the language, but her keen mind quickly began to study the spell being performed before her. No magic circle, no gemstones. A simple incantation and a highly specialized mage. The wall before them began to live. In truth, it had never been there. The illusion faded away.

”It'll seal behind us again but the magical residue lingers for hours,” Lehto said. “They'll be able to force it open.”

The entire group passed through and into the other side. Jumping through was as if stepping a thousand years back in time. The room on the other side looked ready to collapse on itself. Pillars had cracked and pieces of rough-hewn stone had settled on the floor A strong smell of mold made Rin retch.

Lehto turned around and recited words with her eyes closed. Her voice wavered, like she herself were another illusion as the other began to take form before her.

Von Anhalt eased as the illusion was in place again. ”Lehto, head out ahead with Lord El-Melloi. I'll mine the rooms to buy us some time.”

”Shouldn't she come with us?” Lord El-Melloi asked.

”No. I let her out of my sight once already and you see what happened. Go!”

Right as the two other mages had left the room and headed deep into the passages, Von Anhalt began to scan the room. His eyes scanned for fallen roofbeams, pillars, and rocks, anything that would be disturbed as their pursuers headed into the room. He tapped three small stones on the floor, drew a cymbol on the floor with a few quick waves of his arm, and finished the trap with four jewels that he hid right next to the illusionary wall.

Rin watched him work, not disturbing him until the delicate trap was in place. ”I want to hear how she is. No white lies.”

”I don't know the details. I've been running or fighting ever since I heard the news this morning. I was tracking you until that damn stampede almost took me with it.”

”How is she?” Rin repeated, her voice stern.

”They pulled her alive from the battlefield, but she could still die. Giuliano's bloc wouldn't have bothered with the coup if they knew for certain that she is dead. As it stands, we're up to our necks in shit.”

”She'll make it. I know she will.”

Von Anhalt moved briskly to the next room and began to lay down another trap, chattering as he worked. The calm, precise movement of his hands reminded Rin of a tailor sewing together cloth. ”Got any plans?”

”Plans for what?”

”If she dies then there's no way in hell either of us can stay. After that last exchange Giuliano will want your head in a jar and my body on a spike. You have land in Asia. You could set up a good position and bloody them enough to make them give up on you.”

”I can't leave. Not until I can figure out how to dismantle the Grail.”

”Learn as you go. Otherwise Giuliano will take your brain, examine it and start that thing up again, whatever it actually is. Me, though… I'll find some lovely little hut in the Alps, grow some potatoes and live a country life waiting to kill every whoreson who'll come for me.”

”You're not serious.”

”What the hell does it matter anymore? I could go with you. I'd get used to chopsticks faster than Weißwurst anyway. There's never a shortage of wet work in Asia.” He grinned as he placed another trio of gems in a triangle around a rotting doorframe, clearly savoring the thought. ”There's never a shortage of it where magi are involved.”

”She's not dead yet.”

”No. She's not. If it makes you feel any better, you've got a chance to hurt those who want her dead.”

Rin thought of the people who would treat her like an animal, and then remembered they had attacked Luvia as well. She'd hesitated to kill and for that Andrea would have repaid her by drawing a pistol. Closing her eyes, she could feel in her mind the presence of their pursuers. They came to kill – or worse.

”Let me.”

”Sure you know how?”

Rin picked up one the stones and charged it with energy in her hand. She laid it down on the floor, hurriedly but accurately traced the lines of a magic circle and then sealed the trap with a charge of five gemstones. Almost overkill.

”An acoustic trigger?”

Rin finished the charge with one more touch of the stone. ”Set to explode on the third impulse from activation.”

”You learn fast. Come, this way.”

Rin set the next two traps, choosing different methods of activation for both. Von Anhalt eyed the corridor behind them with excitement. A gust of wind passed through the corridor. ”They're in. Finish that one and we'll run.”

The reached Lehto and El-Melloi soon. The pair stood guard at an intersection of passages. The one on their left had crumbled in on itself.

Von Anhalt pressed his hand on a heavy stone slab atop the pile. ”No magical residue. This was natural.”

”Why now?” Lord El-Melloi asked.

Lehto peered into the other passage. ”It could be the fighting above. These tunnels are barely holding together as it is. A bit of shockwave could have hurt the fields keeping them intact.”

”We'll take the other one,” Von Anhalt said. ”They're already inside with us. Airflow passed by not too long ago.”

”It could be anything,” Lehto said. ”Another cave-in, fields fluctuating. There's no way we can avoid the summoning circle if we head down to that path.”

”What circle?” Lord El-Melloi interrupted.

”Don't you know, professor? You'll get a practical demonstration soon enough.”

”Tell me what it is and we might have a chance to make it out of here alive.”

”I don't know.” Von Anhalt ran his thumb along the damaged part of his neck, his fingers resting against his clavicle. ”I don't have the slightest goddamn idea. The whoreson gobbles up Od so I can distract it while you pass over the circle.”

”Is it corporeal or spiritual? Is it immediately hostile or not? Will it-”

”Professor, you may conduct every study you wish at the site itself. I didn't have time to make notes the last time I saw it.”

A dull rumble shook the walls and a blast of air passed through the chamber. Sand ground against the shaking stones and a handful of dust fell on Rin's head.

”Time's up. We'll take our chances with the circle. Nice one, girl.”

A cold chill passed through Rin's chest when she realized what had happened. She ran her fingers through her hair to hide her shock and get the cold dust out. The feeling of having it in her scalp was uncanny. Disgusting. ”It might have been yours.”

”No. I set all of mine to maim. There's no screaming, so it's yours. Feels nice to hit back, doesn't it?”

Rin tried to swallow, but her parched mouth wouldn't obey. What the hell had she just done? The smell in the air grew heavier and made her stomach twist. ”We need to keep moving." 

Lehto and El-Melloi went ahead, with Von Anhalt and Rin taking turns hurriedly preparing traps in their wake. Only when both had their supply of gemstones run low did they stop. Charging forwards, they quickly reached the summoning circle.

The chamber was forty, perhaps even fifty metres across, and circular in shape. It was only three metres high, a diminutive height for its expansive with. Every surface was marked with irregular outcroppings of amethyst-colored chrystals that sparkled with unnatural light. The air no longer reeked.

Lord El-Melloi quietly scanned the area, making mental notes of the contents of the chamber. ”There's not much to base the room's age on. No paintings, no reliefs, no statues. Strange. Where's the creature?”

”I'll appear once it senses Od. Move fast. It'll come for me and let you go.” Von Anhalt headed for the center of the circle as Rin, Lehto and Lord El-Melloi took a route rather from the center.

The first sound reverberated across the chamber like a massive bar of metal being slowly bent. Purple-red flames with vivid color began to smolder and grew ever taller all around. A burst of flame struck against Rin's face and she raised her hands to cover herself. The flames washed over her, leaving her untouched.

Then came the roar.

First it was like the sound of an iron hull collapsing on itself. The whirlwind gathered speed and amid the gale she heard the howl. The howl deepened, strengthened, shook the walls and heated the air. The roar took shape in her head, the sound being formed into words. Human words out of an animal's cry.

Von Anhalt stood in the center of the circle, focused, keen, ready for anything. The air stood still. Nothing happened. Relief showed on his face.

He took a single step. A quiet hiss sounded and he turned to Rin, face stricken with panic. ”Run!”

It seized Rin and lifted her in the air. There was no time to be afraid as the grip took hold of her and whiteness swallowed the world.

Father. Mother. Sister. Why have you come for me? I've failed you all. Who is the fourth one? Featureless, soundless, only there in presence. The one behind you. I… I don't want you to see me like this. Not when I've failed. Not when I've killed. I wanted to make you proud.

_I'm sorry._

It's all right. Everything is okay here. Everything that-

”RUN!”

Rin stirred from the cold floor and drew in a deep breath. She coughed hard as bits of dust choked the back of her throat.

Von Anhalt held the handle of the knife deep against his arm. Blood rushed from his wound. Every drop boiled and disappeared into fine mist upon touching the floor.

Rin heard the choir. Deep voices repeated sutras. Another deep howl and the presence in the room seized Von Anhalt in its grasp. He drew the knife from the wound and flung it away. Rin fled. With every step towards the other side she almost fell flat on her face. Lord El-Melloi and Lehto waved at her, screaming words that were swept away with the whirlwind.

Rin looked back over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of the creature, a brief flash when it materialized to strike at Von Anhalt. He flew two dozen meters, crashed on his side and rolled forwards on the ground. His body slid to a halt against the wall beside Lehto.

Rin turned around at the edge of the circle. Behind her, Lehto and El-Melloi rushed to tend to Von Anhalt, pulling the delirious man onto his feet.

The head, neck, and shoulders of the creature were all merged in one single mass. Slender arms with even thinner, long claws. Eight freakishly long shadows cast out to the walls. The knife hovered up from the floor, turned around in the air, and fell back down.

Without making a sound, the creature turned.

They ran. The scream tore into her soul, clouded her vision, stung her blood, and thundered in her ears. Past forgotten rooms filled with grimoires, ancient laboratories, they ran.

Von Anhalt was the first to stop. He leaned with his back against an intact wall and tilted his head to listen. Nothing but their heavy breathing. ”I don't think they're coming through that anytime soon. We're in the clear.”

”What about your wound?” Rin asked.

”We can patch it up. Professor, did your cigarettes make it? I lost mine somewhere along the way.”

”Here.”

Von Anhalt took the cigarette and lit it with a tiny flame from his fingertip. Rin welcomed the stench of bitter tobacco to cover the stench of foul air.

”I… ” He shook his head. ”I think I cut a bit too deep.”

Von Anhalt slid down with his back against the wall and fell flat on his side. The cigarette fell from his hand and began to smolder against the dirtied remains of his suit's sleeve.

Lord El-Melloi knelt to take the cigarette and raised it to his lips, drawing heavily. ”Out cold already. Is there one person among the Edelfelts without a death wish?” he asked and glanced at Lehto who looked on tiredly, her energy long since spent.

Rin turned Von Anhalt to his side and raised the bleeding arm up. The blood was easier to feel than see, with the dark color of the suit hiding the extent of blood loss. The cloth had soaked through. Showoff. ”I'll stop the bleeding. I, I don't think it's too bad.”

”Can you do it?”

”I replaced an entire heart once.” Rin placed her hands on Von Anhalt's shoulder. The cut was below the elbow. Yes, she'd replaced a heart, but she'd also used up ten years' worth of mana to do it. This time she had two small jewels. ”I think it's… there. Damn, he cut the artery.”

”Slow his heart to conserve the blood.”

”I know, I know…”

Von Anhalt shuddered and opened his eyes. Groggily, he checked the wound and hung his head. ”Rin… when it gripped you…. What did you see?”

”My parents.”

”Huh…”

Lord El-Melloi nudged Rin on her shoulder. ”Follow his mental process. Check for damage.”

”I've done this before,” Rin said and shot him a glare.

”I saw… that river. The leaves rustling in the wind. I'm…”

”Quick, mend the artery.”

”Just a moment, I can… wait! It's not the bleeding. He hasn't lost enough to be dying already.”

Lord El-Melloi drew on his cigarette until it burned down to the base. For a few long seconds, he stared like a statue. He nodded and shook his finger in the air as his other hand reached for the pack of cigarettes. He lit another. ”The creature. It's drawn to Od. He thought that his signature would be the strongest and it would lash out at him first. It picked you. To save you, he offered his blood as a distraction. He shed too much and the creature used it as a conduit to access his circuits, thus rewriting his body's autonomous programming.”

”Impossible.”

”After your experience with the Grail War, you should be the last person to call it impossible. Lehto?” Lord El-Melloi stood up. ”I know he doesn't want you to tell me, but what is that creature?”

”A remnant of the cults. The runes tell of a wishmaster.”

”Always with the wishes!” Rin cursed. ”I can't help him. I've never even thought about-”

”Do it. Modify his subconscious.”

”You never taught me. You knew I couldn't learn it.”

”I didn't teach you because I worried what you might do if I did teach you how. Go on.” He took hold of Rin's hand and placed it on Von Anhalt's neck. ”I've taught him as well. I can tell you how to avoid triggering his circuitry's defence mechanisms. The neck is his weak point. Funny, isn't it?”

”It's not.”

”Quiet. Feel it?”

”Yes.”

”25, 55, 85, 60, 100.”

”What?”

”Output in percent. It's a conditioned response. A failsafe of my own design that I insisted all her mages learn. Any hostile attempt would utilize either maximum power or a linear increase. Hurry. He doesn't have long.”

25\. 55. 85, 60, 100…

”I… I think I got it.”

”Prepare the gem.”

”Done.”

”Prepare the spell.”

”Done.”

“Cast spell.”

The gem drained in her hand and left behind a spent husk. Von Anhalt's breath quickened. His pulse strengthened. The second jewel burned up and gave its energy to mend the arteries of his arm. Not bad for two small gemstones, Rin thought and wiped the sweat off her brow.

”How much farther to an exit?” she asked.

”We're almost there,” Lehto said. “We'll be able to regroup once we reach the surface.”

Rin thought of what would wait for her on the surface. Exile? Another murderous struggle? What remained of her world had been shattered in one day. Only Luvia was left now. Luvia and vengeance.

She wanted to see both.


	12. Chapter 12

They reached the surface. At another seemingly dead end, Lehto cleared away the illusion of a rocky wall to reveal the surface behind it. Even the dull light of the overcast sky was enough to sting Rin's eyes. The exit was in a small meadow with no sight of either roads or buildings in any direction. 

Mages stepped forth from concealment and upon recognizing the group emerging from underground, rushed quickly to aid them. Von Anhalt looked worst by far and collapsed as soon as the first mage stepped forth to ask him for a report. Lehto stepped by him and explained what had occurred. 

The sound of a helicopter's turbine carried far, annoucing its presence long before the small machine flew low and fast and over the treetops. It came to view and touched down with a violent deceleration. The downwash tore at Rin's clothing as the sheer volume of noise beat against her chest. Her group was hurried aboard and the aircraft quickly lifted up to whisk them away to the Edelfelt's stronghold.

The landing felt no less chaotic. Rin hurried out, with Von Anhalt ahead of her. He looked ghastly pale, weak, barely conscious. Rin dared not say a word in protest, but to her he looked too weak to be on his feet. Another mage rushed to aid him. 

Von Anhalt showed the man aside. ”Where's Nagaev?” 

”Dead.”

”Take care of Lord El-Melloi. I need to see lady Luvia.” Von Anhalt turned on the spot as the other mage left. 

”Shouldn't you have yourself treated?” Rin asked.

”You're not safe until I've brought you to Luvia. Not everyone shares her view of your worth.” 

”So I'm no safer here than I was at the Clocktower? Great.”

”Better to think that way than to be naive.”

He led her to the through the mansion to another room. They passed by a pair of bodyguards guarding the first door, and at the second, there stood the doctor that had treated Rin as well. The door behind him was closed. The moment the doctor turned to them, his disposition changed. A foul temper poisoned the air, but Rin knew it wasn't directed at her. 

”I'm here to see my lady.”

”Has that wound been tended to? You stubborn fool, you're in no condition to be up on your feet.”

”I'm here to see my liege.”

”You will see her once she is in condition to accept visitors. Soon.”

”Quack doctors and their worthless promises!” Von Anhalt's knuckles whitened as his foot twisted  
against the floor. ”I demand to see her.”

”Were it not for her, I'd euthanize you myself. For her sake, stand down and have yourself treated!”

”Where will you do, my dear doctor? Heading back to Italy with Giuliano?”

”My Lady has faith in me. Follow her example.”

”How convenient that she speaks through you. Move aside. Either she's fit to see us right this instant or I will tear your head from your shoulders!”

Von Anhalt looked ready to do exactly that, as the doctor showed no signs of yielding. Rin stepped past him and faced the doctor.

”I need to see her,” she said. ”It's important.”

”That doesn't concern me at all.”

”Look.” Rin slid her hand into her pocket and retrieved the ring. She held it out on the palm of her hand.

”Von Anhalt, I don't care if you gave your entire crest to this foolish girl. She is not going in.”

Von Anhalt held out his hand. The same signet ring contrasted against his pale fingers. The toxicologist at last showed signs of yielding as he understood where the ring had come from. ”She's unconscious. Even if I let you in, I won't wake her. Not when-”

The door behind him rattled against its frame. All froze to watch it, listening for another sound and to see whether it would open. When nothing happened, the doctor rushed into the room with Von Anhalt and Rin right behind him. 

Luvia had withered. That was the only way Rin could explain the change to herself in her mind. The blonde was pale, sickly, one cheek patched with a bandage and her stomach too covered with a dressing for the wound. Yet she lived. She lived and looked at Rin with immense relief.

”Are you hurt?” she asked.

”I'm fine.”

”She is well,” Von Anhalt added. ”In better shape than I am. We had to flee through the catacombs.”

”But where is Nagaev?”

”Dead,” Von Anhalt said. 

Luvia opened her mouth and froze in place. She drew a wavering breath, closed her eyes, and once she opened was full of grim determination. ”Von Anhalt, while I recover, you shall have power of life and death over any member of the clan. If anyone so much as lends their ear to talk of collusion, the punishment is death. But first, arrange Nagaev's succession.”

Von Anhalt bowed and and left, giving Rin a curt nod as he left. 

Luvia addressed the doctor next. ”Treat him and then see to Miss Tohsaka.”

Silence fell as the pair were left alone in the room. A heavy weight pressed down on Rin's chest, stopping her from saying a word. She sat beside the bed and took Luvia's hand. The pain on Luvia's face hurt Rin.

”Another death,” Luvia said. 

”It's not your fault.”

”Does it matter?”

Rin watched as the first tear rolled down, and as Luvia pulled her close, she didn't resist. She held Luvia carefully against her, with a light touch. Quiet sobs marked Luvia's weak movements. Soon Rin cried herself, without knowing why. 

\---

Rin's own treament began later that day. The poison that had lingered within her body finally announced its presence as Luvia's doctor began the process of purging it. Bedridden, her body exhausted itself in an effort to wring every last trace of the antidote out of her. The doctor hadn't lied. The antidote itself was more unpleasant than the poison itself. There was no dignity in being so sick.

Except for the pain and nausea, she remembered little of the first day. Passage of time had little meaning when all her senses were dulled. Pain tore at her mind and nerves, and what little remained of her wits was dulled by the mixture of drugs that were meant to make the process bearable. 

The toxicologists visits marked the only meaningful routine that broke up the suffering. As far as Rin knew, he visited her four times a day. The passage of time was difficult to make sense of.

On the third day, she was able to muster the strength to speak. The toxicologist stepped into the room and began his routine: more medication and another round of checks. Rin disliked him, but didn't doubt his professionalism, reminding herself that it was the only thing that truly mattered. 

”What about Luvia?” Rin asked.

”Same as you. She keeps asking questions about matters she should not worry about when recovering.”

”So what did you tell her?”

”That you're recovering as you should.”

”It hurts like hell. Shouldn't it be easier on me if I'm going to recover?”

”Of course not.” 

”Should I just roll over and die then? It would get rid of the pain.”

”It hurts because your body is strong enough to fight back. Apathy and resignation mean death. Painful resistance doesn't.”

Her dislike of the man grew with every word he spoke, but despite her state, Rin knew better than to insult the person in charge of her treatment. She bore the discomfort of another diagnosis spell with tired familiarity and spoke no more until the man had left. 

She turned over her side in the bed and held her abdomen to alleviate the pain. It would be several hours until the next visit at dawn, time during which she had her best chance to sleep. 

The door opened again. It was too early for the doctor. Rin rolled over in her bed and squinted her eyes to see.

”Are you well?” Von Anhalt asked. 

”Awful, but that quack keeps telling me it somehow means I'm getting better.” Rin swallowed heavily as the movement of her own tongue made her nauseous. ”It doesn't make a lot of sense to me right now.” 

Von Anhalt sat down on the other side of the room. He looked healthier, if such a disctinction could be made for a man seriously wounded. His face had a semblance of color, but past the physical, he was marked by the weight of profound melancholy on his form. He didn't say a word, but the room wasn't quiet for Rin. Her ears rang, head hurt, and nausea clawed at her stomach.

Rin slowly forced herself up to a sitting position. Terrible headache pounded at her head and she squeezed her eyes shut, gripping her forehead with her hand. ”How is Luvia?”

”The doctor circles her like a vulture, but at least that keeps him from watching over me and telling me to rest. Nagaev's death weighs on her.”

”But she's recovering, right?”

Von Anhalt ignored the question and sat still, staring off at a wall, looking entirely detached from the present. He stopped for a moment, grimacing with pain and gripping his elbow. Slowly the wave of pain left his face and he breathed with heavy relief. ”Yes. She herself knows how irreplaceable she is. So do Giuliano and the rest of those pigspawned bastards know it, which is why they went for her first.”

He interrupted himself to bite his teeth again, but soon continued. ”She reminds me of her father. Both hopeless idealists who had ideas more noble than bloodshed and petty feuds. Now she clings on to life, her father in self-inflicted exile where no-one can reach him. His own mages wanted rid of him. Her they couldn't get rid of, because she has an advantage that he didn't. There is no sibling or child to take her crest. It's the reason why she hasn't married yet. Well, one part of it, as you understand.”

”What do you mean, part of it?”

Von Anhalt had a look on his face that Rin had never seen. Not when he had fought for his life, not when they fled from death itself, not when his wound had drained the strength from his body. He looked baffled. Calmly, with a sigh, he looked off to the side and scratched his nose. ”And I thought only her father could be so blind.”

”What?”

”Uh, when a bee and a flower… wait, is it two flowers in this case? Shit.” He waved his hand. ”Forget I said anything.”

”No. Tell me what-”

He pounced up from his seat to interrupt her. ”Can you walk?”

”I think so. Why?”

”There's something I need your help with.”

”What is it?” She muttered.

”Help me repay a debt I owe. I'll wait outside.”

Rin waited for him to leave before groggily clothing herself. Outside of her room, the mansion was quiet, brooding. Von Anhalt led the way downwards to another wing Rin had not visited. Past one heavier door, the air got colder and more moist. The rooms were no longer heated. 

Doors lined both sides of a corridor. Von Anhalt turned left, opening the seal that held the lock with a wave of his hand, and then pushed the handle in. 

The room had a bed and a few chairs. Not quite a cell, but not a real room either. Rin's eyes took long to adjust into the dim light, to discern the huddled mass in the corner. Her eyes didn't want to see. Neither did Rin, once she could.

”She refuses food and water.” Von Anhalt stepped closer to the weak form in the corner. ”Because she has already told us everything we care to know, I don't see why we should force her.”

The right side of Andrea's face had a red-blue bruise on it. The left was more intact, but marked with crimson cuts made be either fingernails or blades. Rin couldn't tell which. That wasn't her own doing, was it? Not all of it could possibly be. ”Andrea?”

”Rin?” Andrea shifted against the wall, lifting her bound arms up to move hairs away from her face. 

”Why… what do you want me to do?”

”Do as you like.” Von Anhalt took Rin's hand in his while the other reached for his suit's pocket. He placed a knife in Rin's hand. ”You saved my life. She wanted to take yours with that very blade.”

”Does Luvia know?”

”My Lady has given me the authority to act as I see fit.”

”My Lady?” Andrea tried to spit. ”She's the queen of whores and empress of murderers.”

Von Anhalt punched Andrea in the face. He was still weak. Andrea's head whipped over to the side and fell down, limp. Had he been healthy, the punch would have killed her. She slowly stirred from unconsciousness and reached up to wipe her face with bound hands. ”Like beating women? Limp-dicked piece of shit.”

”Insults won't hasten your end. Not by my hand.” Von Anhalt turned his head to Rin.

Rin turned the knife in her hand. Was it really the one? It looked right. It felt right.

”Do it,” Andrea said. Her voice was flat, devoid of the malice she'd shown Von Anhalt. She was simply tired and rested her head against the cold stone wall, mouth hanging lazily open.

”Not yet,” Rin said.

”So not even you will offer me that much dignity.”

”How much did they pay you?”

”Ask him.”

Rin looked over to Von Anhalt. He pushed himself upright from the wall he'd leaned against. ”Money. Quite a bit of it. Favors with the departments, some artifacts. She was to make a considerable profit.”

”They offered me nothing that wasn't already mine!” Andrea, suddenly full of rage, tore at her restraints and flashed her teeth at the pair. ”Those aristocrats know how to negotiate. No matter what I asked for they would never offer me anything that wasn't mine to begin with.”

”You're making no sense,” Rin said.

”Really? Want to know what makes even less sense? I, Andrea Balcazar. Forced to mingle with new blood, Orientals, and whatever filth gets dragged in these days. That's what Giuliano promised to set right. It's the best she could do. Not even she could set right everything Luviagelita had destroyed. Tch... so she said.”

”All of which occurred in Reinhold's time.”

”The daughter made to pay for the sins of the father.” Andrea mocked. ”Isn't that the best kind of justice there is? My family had power. We had a name. We had a place here. Now that whore who holds your leash has all that. I was given the chance to take it back. All I had to do was make sure you'd take the poison.” Her fingers twitched nervously as she strained to bring a malicious grin to her face. The skin of her bruised and dirtied face only barely moved. ”You had me so worried. I lost sleep trying to figure out how to do it. Heh… haha. In the end you did all the work for me.”

”You would poison someone to get it all back?”

”Why not? You'd do the same. Think about it. Everything she has, her family has stolen and pillaged. No matter what she's given you, all of it was someone else's.”

Rin turned away. No. Never. ”Your brother too?”

”You don't know what it's like to have a sibling.”

Rin met Andrea's gaze confidently, feeling a spark of anger in herself. ”I do.”

”So you did manage to keep something from me. How did you get rid of him?”

”Her. I didn't.”

”Did you have to? Daddy picked you, right? His favorite. You never learned what it's like to watch a little monster grow and take everything that was supposed to be yours. Makes it easy to look down on people like me. Only daddy's favorite could be so full of herself.”

Rin's fingers tightened and relaxed around the knife's handle, getting a good feel for the weight of the blade. ”Giuliano said something about my blood. What did she mean?”

”I don't know. They only told me who you were and how Luvia had an interest in you. You should be thankful. Without Giuliano marking you out for herself, you wouldn't have lasted a week.”

Rin couldn't deny the obvious. That didn't make the insult any less infuriating. Looking at Andrea's sneering face, she found it easy to make her choice. 

”You'd do the same,” she said.

”Wha-”

The blade cut easily.

Blood stained her fingernails. The warmth was strangely comfortable on Rin's cold fingers. Her sleeve caught a few drops that flowed the long way down the spine of the blade, over her fingers and the back of her hand. 

It was as if a lens had placed itself between her mind and reality. The comfortable warmth spread from her hand to her body. There was none of the disgust and doubt there had been when she heard and understood what the dull blast had meant. 

More blood pooled beside the body.


	13. Chapter 13

Rin's nausea eased during the next day. Having given its all in resistance, her body finally accepted the treatment it was subjected to. As the pain that had so preoccupied her mind faded away, her mind struggled to comprehend the strange calm which filled her. Beneath the still surface, a current flowed and swirled. During the night it turned into a whirlwind.

The cold bed felt warmer and warmer against her skin. Uncomfortable hunger gnawed at her. Raindrops tapped against the windowsill. Only the feeling of squeezing her eyes shut told her whether they were open or not. The darkness stifled her breath like thick fog. 

Denied vision, her brain invents its own.

Cold steel taste like pure ice. The blood is warm on her tongue. The sharpness sweet and pleasant as it cuts the skin. 

The line between reality and dream is no longer as sharp. Like wind's chill slipping through cracks in a flimsy wall, sights, sounds, emotions, all slip through. When they grip at her chest and spine, it does not matter whether they're real. 

A steady hand places four jewels and traces the lines. Her lips mutter the incantation. 

A naive mind can't be remorseless. 

The shockwave is dull, indistinct. She can't make sense of the form that triggers the trap. Who would deserve to?

She woke to a painful flinch. The sweaty sheets stuck disgustingly to her skin. She thought of  
reaching for the light switch, but realized that she didn't know where it was. Panic reached at her from the corners of the room which she couldn't perceive. Remembering the forms, she held her breath in and let it out calmly. Her body relaxed itself, and from the precipice of panic it returned to its exhausted state. 

Now she is no longer a spectator to the vision, and becomes a part of it. The dream feels realest as she sees it through her own eyes. The noxious stench is punctuated by the distant memory of a smell she has tried her best to forget. Her foot trips a small stone, and the gemstones shatter one by one. Her legs are torn away. Her fingers cut one by one. A fierce pull grips at her gut and she is gone.

Heavy raindrops fell against the windowsill. 

–-

Luvia stood by the table, gripping it hard to ease her balance. She let go of it and focused again, tensing her body and breathing heavily. A bit of vertigo forced her to lean her hip against it for support. 

It wouldn't do. Nagaev had she could always trust with the truth, but she didn't know how to treat is replacement. She pulled back the seat behind the work-desk and slowly lowered herself down. Her pulse took long to return to normal.

It pained her to admit that she'd known as little about Nagaev as she did about his replacement. Nagaev had felt trustworthy, familiar even, because of the connection to her father. With Von Anhalt, those ties barely existed. 

That didn't change the fact that he truly deserved the position. Replacing Nagaev with anyone else would send the message that loyalty, power, and ruthless efficiency weren't the virtues with which advancement under the Edelfelts was earned.

A less knowledgeable person might have assumed that sacrifice too was one of those virtues. No. Shedding of one's own blood was no feat worthy of imitation. Killing was.

Von Anhalt stepped into the room.

For a man so blessed, he looked weary. Luvia had always assumed that Von Anhalt had no other motivations than simple ambition. ”Nagaev is gone. As you take his place by my side, you shall assume responsibility over tasks that you have previously not tended to. Delegate as you wish, but the ultimate responsibility remains yours.”

”I understand. There's also a suggestion that I would like to make.”

”Go ahead.”

Von Anhalt took his time before he spoke, but whether it was excitement or concern that made him hold his tongue, Luvia couldn't tell. ”I intend to groom Miss Tohsaka as Nagaev's replacement.”

”Nonsense. That is not the purpose I had in mind for her.”

”The Tohsaka girl is my superior.” 

Luvia was taken aback by the bluntness and honesty of his admission. Von Anhalt was not a man to treat such matters lightly. Had he wounded himself or done something else to damage his abilities? Was Rin truly that powerful? It worried Luvia that she still didn't quite know the truth about Rin's potential. ”How do you know?”

”Do you remember the summoning chamber was investigating?”

”Yes. I have read the preliminary report.”

”During our escape we fled through there. The creature chose her over me.”

”Nagaev and I suspected her potential but…” Luvia shook her head. ”There will be foul rumours that I have mistreated you.”

”If you don't make use of Miss Tohsaka, any talk of meritocracy will fall on deaf ears.”

Luvia was taken back by how he was so easily able to pinpoint her concern. If only it were as simple as that. But why not? Why did offering Rin that position seem like such a horrible idea? ”What about Balcazar? I understand her motivations were somewhat personal. It all happened in my father's time, correct?” 

”Yes. A rather minor occasion. I was not involved.”

”The matter was beneath you?”

”One of many like it.” Von Anhalt picked away a hair from his suit. ”There was one more thing that I learned during the last… interrogation.”

Luvia gave a curious look. ”I thought she didn't say anything of interest.”

”Not Balcazar. Miss Tohsaka did.”

”Oh?”

”She has a sister.”

”Interesting, but…” Right as Luvia began to consider all the opportunities that this new piece of information might offer, she understood that Von Anhalt was trying to draw her attention away from another just as important fact. ”Why was Miss Tohsaka involved?”

”She wished to settle a personal debt.”

”Did she? Or did you make her your accomplice?”

”You gave no command on to the matter. I was in her debt and wished to repay.”

”And you did so in the only manner you know.” A foul taste crept to Luvia's tongue. In only a few days, Von Anhalt had managed to do just the thing Luvia had worried about. His logic was sound, impossible to argue against when looking at things from a Mage's point of view. Yet, Luvia hated the thought of applying those some principles to Rin. She hated the feeling.

”My Lady, I understand. However, the Tohsaka girl... she puzzles me.”

I wonder why that might be, Luvia thought. Perhaps because she didn't wish to wear Balcazar's entrails around her neck. ”Why?”

”Her behaviour was rather… humane. I expected her to the carve the bitch from cunt to ribcage.” He slowly shook his head and looked away, clearly recalling a memory to is mind. ”I don't understand why she didn't. ” 

Luvia understood. In the short moment when he could do as he liked, he'd done all he could. ”You put the knife in her hand.”

”My Lady I-”

”Did you?”

”I did.”

”You goaded her on.”

”I-”

”She might not know you well enough, but I do.” Luvia's tone was ice-cold. ”I had thought that after several years I would be able to predict your excesses, but no. Do not make me tie your hands. You are more useful to me when I can trust in your judgment.”

”My Lady I-”

”Get out. And do not try your tricks on her ever again or I shall have your head. I have no use for a simple-minded butcher.”

Von Anhalt bowed deep, respectfully, holding his hand against his chest. He turned to leave, but stopped at the door and looked at Luvia with his head held low. ”What else have you ever used me for?”

Luvia did her best to wear a mask of stern solemnity on her face, desperate not to show that she truly could not answer his question.

”What else is there left for me?” he asked. 

”Have Miss Tohsaka sent in.” Luvia turned her head away and waited until he left. She would never mourn him. She would only feel guilt over another person she had ruined. 

\---

Lacking rest and nourishment, Rin's body only felt comfortably warm in the hot water. Luvia's servants knew how to prepare a bath hot enough, and after half an hour, she was ready to sing their praises. It was the small things that truly mattered the most. A cup of green tea and she could have closed her eyes and imagined being home. 

Would home still be home? It was a melancholic, dejecting thought that she couldn't quite answer. Rin sighed and shifted herself in the bath. She needed it. After the days tossing about in her own sweat, it was a blessing to be clean again. 

A knock on the door made Rin open her eyes. She turned her head groggily towards the door. ”Yes?”

The door opened only slightly, enough for voice of a servant to carry through. ”Lady Luviagelita has requested your presence.”

”Is she in a hurry?” Rin asked, not caring one bit how impertinent she might sound. Wasn't she correct in defending her right to have a leisurely bath?

”I was not told.”

”Tell her…” Rin stretched her arms over her head and closed her eyes. It was an easy choice to make. ”Tell her I'll be there as soon as I can.” 

The door was already about to close when Rin remembered a very pressing concern. ”Wait a moment! I… I don't think I even have a change of clothes.” The detail had not dawned upon her before dipping herself in the bath, and even if it had, she wouldn't have cared. Her clothes, the few she had, were at the Clocktower dormitories with the rest of her belongings – all of which had doubtless been ransacked.

”It has been arranged for.”

Rin didn't have long to wonder what that actually meant. As soon as she had dried herself off and covered herself in a delightfully comfortable bath robe, she was whisked away back to her room. 

A change of clothes waited her on the bed. Another servant waited beside the bed. Rin recognized her as the woman from their escape. Lehto.

Before Rin could ask, the woman stepped beside the bed and lifted up the dress, showing it to Rin. 

The dress was pristine, too beautiful to wear, like simply touching it might ruin the effect it had. 

”I was told that red is a family colour.”

”In a way it is.”

”In a way? Please, there are no ambiguities when it comes to these matters. Lady Luvia is fortunate to have a colour of hair that matches well with blue, for she would be wearing it regardless. Is the shade correct?”

”Yes,” Rin said. Tokiomi's shade. The cloth was smooth in an almost ethereal manner. The flowing touch of crimson fabric against her skin was strangely familiar. An uncomfortable, uncanny feeling gnawed at her conscience. The dress was too luxurious to be anything but a reward of some sort.

But for what?

Lehto gave a curt nod to another servant girl standing in the corner of the room. She helped Rin wear the dress as Lehto courteously turned her back. Rather than helpful, the entire procedure felt horribly invasive of Rin's privacy. She couldn't fathom how people could even be comfortable with the fantasy of being waited on hand and foot, let alone the reality.

Wearing the dress felt no more natural. It wasn't constraining or tight, no more so than any other bit of clothing made to appear exquisite, but Rin felt out of place in it. It was clear that it had been made for her.

Why did it feel like anything but?

It was as thought she was trying to steal someone else's role. Looking at herself in the mirror, Rin thought that it would have looked perfect and fitting on either Lehto, the servant girl, or Luvia. On herself, it was mismatched piece. A mage's dress on someone who wasn't. 

”Good enough,” Lehto said. ”Lady Luviagelita will see you now. Girl, take Miss Tohsaka to her.”

The stark command Lehto gave startled Rin. The servant guided her towards Luvia's room and knocked on the door before moving out of the way. Rin touched the doorhandle nervously, worrying what Luvia might say about the sudden change in clothing. Rin was sure Luvia would see through the pathetic attempt at blending in.

She opened the door and stepped in. ”You asked to see me?”

”Yes.” Uncurled, Luvia's hair fell long and straight over her back. She looked healthier. Well. A small scar on her cheek marked the left side of her face, like an artist's chisel had slipped and struck an errant blow against the surface of a masterpiece. Despite the wound, she smiled with clear relief and nodded happily. 

”About what?”

”I wanted to talk to you about, the… regarding the events that have, um, transpired over the last few days which have lead me to…”

Rin gave Luvia a moment to fill in the silence and make sense of what she was saying. ”The what now?”

Luvia looked as confused as Rin. ”Ah, to be entirely honest, I… simply wanted to see you were well. Goodness, they really dressed you up for me.”

”I'm feeling a lot better. A little shaken, I guess. I think they did a bit too much.”

”Nonsense. You look… noble. Magely.”

That last word brought connotations that Rin was far from comfortable with. ”Did I... do something?”

”What do you mean?”

”It feels a bit sudden, that's all. Like I did something to deserve this.”

”You needed a change of clothes. I hardly keep T-shirts and jeans around.”

Rin wanted to believe in what Luvia was saying. Perhaps it truly was a matter as simple as that to Luvia, but Rin thought there was another message being relayed - that riches and more could be hers. She only needed to act like a mage.

Rin took a seat for herself and sat down, slumping down on herself. The dress felt more and more like a constricting shell. ”I don't deserve this.” She shook her head. ”Not for doing what I did.”

Luvia stepped closer to Rin and toucher her sympathethically on the shoulder. ”He told me what happened.”

”He must've been really satisfied with me. Father would be so proud too. So many years spent trying to be a mage, and now I finally act like one after I've made up my mind not to.” 

Rin buried her face in her hands, squeezing her eyes shut tight. She felt like a mockery. The ridiculous dress only made it that much more apparent. Stupid. Weak. Like she had tried to don the same robe – armor – that so effortlessly fit Luvia. 

Raising her head, Rin wanted to cry, but couldn't. Luvia's calming, understanding face made it impossible. 

”How could I live with myself if I keep walking down this path?”

Luvia reached out to take Rin's hand and held it in her palm. ”I have learned that sometimes, one must learn not to see. I look at what matters to me, and find beauty in it.”

”That's wrong. I can't just act like a hypocrite. Like…”

”Like me?” Luvia appeared restless asking her question. 

”No. You're human,” Rin said. 

”But what is the difference?”

Rin tried to answer, failing miserably at it. Something was the difference and she couldn't possibly put it into words. There it was, between the two, so strong she could have reached out and grasped it. 

Luvia took a sapphire in her hand and placed it on the table. The deep blue shone beautifully with the glossy brown of the wood beneath it. ”Is it evil?” she asked.

Captivated by its beauty, Rin peered into its depths and found nothing. Lifeless, it hid no dark secret behind its beauty. Rin shook her head. ”No.”

Luvia tapped the lifeless gem with her finger. A small spark slipped through its walls and bounced around like a goldfish circling in a bowl too small. ”We are like that sapphire. Vessels for the force of magecraft, but unlike them, we can choose how we wield it. We cannot be forced to extinguish life. We can choose – or so we tell ourselves.”

”I've chosen to ruin myself with that power.”

”No. That is not true.” Luvia said and pushed the gem away. It loudly rolled over itself and slowly came to an abrupt stop.

”I've taken lives.”

”She would have killed you.”

”Chained down in that cell? Not anymore. A few months and I've already broken my own promises. I can't stay here. I need to go before I… before I lose myself.” 

”Why? You will be safe. Please, stay.”

”When this is over I'll go back to Japan.”

”What if I ask you to stay? Forget all else. This senseless violence, the politics of the Clocktower, your own studies. Stay because I ask you to. You will always have place by my…” Luvia's words caught in her throat and looked to almost be in pain. ”A place here,” she continued.

Rin felt herself walking a precarious, narrow, and intensely uncomfortable line. It didn't matter. She had to do it. ”What happens then? How long until someone else decides that we don't deserve to live?”

”Then I will prove them wrong, whichever way I must.” Luvia said, the hidden intention clear in her voice.

”So you'll just do my dirty work for me.” Rin shook her head, biting her teeth and hoping that the movement would wipe away the hopeless vision in her head.

”You would rather bury your head in the sand?”

”I want to be left alone!” Rin thought to raise her voice, but found herself shouting without meaning to, without sense of what she was saying. The heaviness of the situation gripped at her neck, choking her, filling her with a sense of panic that she tried desperately to wriggle away from. ”I want to live without having to stoop so low.” 

”You want nothing to do with our world.”

”I don't. Ever.”

”You cannot run away from the blood in your veins.” Luvia turned her wrist around and traced her thumb along the lines of the blue veins. ”I would know, for I have tried.”

”I want nothing to do with any of this.”

Luvia looked on, remaining quiet. She only speaking after a very heavy pause with her voice full of melancholy. ”Neither did I. But what did they care? Did father? Mother? The bloodhounds on my trail? Please, Rin, you need to understand. You cannot act like a petulant little girl. Like I did.” 

Rin lowered her head and stared at her own hands. ”I thought you cared for me.”

”I do, Rin. I know how cruel a curse having a mage's blood is. What has it given me? Envious foes, pain, and a crushing duty.” Luvia swallowed heavily and took deep, calming breaths. ”There was a time when I… when I gladly would have seen my blood spilled. That is how much it hurts to have childish dreams crushed. Rin… you cannot escape. No-one can.” 

”So what's left? A slow descent into madness?”

”I do not know. Perhaps the Clocktower will change. More likely it will not. I might not live to see either thing happen. No matter what comes, I want you there with me, Rin.”

”Why? I'm no mage. I'm not the cold-blooded mage you need and I'll never want to be.”

”You have lived among our kind and non-mages alike. Tell me, are we truly that different?”

Rin thought long about the question. No matter how she looked, all her fellow students were still human. There was a difference, yes, but it was more the difference between two shades of a color than a color and a sound. ”No. It's different but not so different that you're not human.”

”You are right, Rin.” Luvia pulled back one of the drawers of her work-desk. ”Strange, is it not?”

Rin tensed up at the sight of the pistol which had been placed within. But why, she asked herself, pondering her own reaction. Wasn't the jewel placed on the table just as lethal?”

”It must have been easier to feign indifference when more than a mere mask separated us from those not afflicted with the forces of thaumathurgy.”

Luvia turned the pistol in her hand from side to side, admiring the light reflecting from the finished metal surface of its slide. The empty magazine slid out and looked very light in her hands. She pulled the slide back to check the chamber, and pointed the pistol at the mirror towards her side. 

”See how well it fits in a woman's hand? Von Anhalt would have us all carry these. I suspect he has long since carried one himself. He insists that many pragmatic mages do.”

Luvia sighed heavily and squeezed her finger. The hammer snapped on the empty chamber. ”One group kills with fire, lead, and steel, the other with arcane forces. And yet…”

”Only one group pretends to be above right and wrong,” Rin summed up for Luvia.

Luvia slid the magazine back in and placed the pistol back into the drawer. ”It might not make you think any better of me, but I want you to remember there are worse things than being unable to abstain from violence.”

”What do you mean?”

”It is much worse to hurt another without meaning to.” Luvia laid her hand on Rin's shoulder. ”Never let me do that to you.”

Rin was speechless at the earnestness of that request. To say that she wouldn't ever let Luvia do so would mean that she expected Luvia to make that mistake in the future. Rin didn't. She couldn't figure out what she thought or felt of Luvia, but none of it was bad enough to suggest such a thing.  
”I don't want to hurt you either.”

Luvia was blushing. Rin was certain of it. The feeling was very contagious in that brief moment the two spent staring at one another. Luvia lowered her hand down Rin's shoulder and grasped her hand. Then the blonde turned her head away and suppressed a wavering breath.

”Rin, I do not wish to be rude, but could you please let me have a moment for myself?”

”It's okay,” Rin said, not wanting to intrude on what bothered Luvia so much. 

”Thank you, Rin. Truly.” Luvia let her grip of Rin's hand slip loose.

Rin stood herself up and stepped to leave the room. At the door she looked back at Luvia who had quietly turned herself away. Wearily, feeling a distinct melancholy, Rin closed the door.

Wasn't it cruel leaving her alone like that? Rin tried to push away the sense of responsibility from her head without quite managing to. She didn't want to go against what Luvia asked of her. 

Rin headed back towards her room. About halfway there, light cast out into the hallway from a door that had been left open. Rin approached it and carefully pulled it open, trying to make sense of the noise coming from the room. 

The entire room had been lit by the blue light of a TV screen. A low, senseless cacophony muffled the sounds of a gamepad being very forcefully handled.

The noise came to a sharp, artifical stop. Lord El-Melloi II hold the controller with one hand and shifted his lazy, undignified position on the couch. ”Did she send you?” he asked. Curiously, he was not smoking, nor was he wearing the more formal attire of his usual role. Looking less than academic, he lazed about in a loose T-shirt.

Rin stood still, puzzled by the vision. She briskly shook her head. ”No, uh, not at all. The door was open and I sort of wandered in.” 

”Feeling restless?” He pressed a button on his controller and the noise resumed. His attention was squarely focused on the game, leaving Rin standing like a fool by the door. 

Rather than accept being dismissively made a mockery of, Rin closed the door beside her and sat down on the couch. ”I doubt I'm the only one.”

”You're right.” Lights and senseless catchphrases flashed on the screen. Lord El-Melloi II set his controller down and reached for the pack of cigarettes on the table.

”Huh.”

”What?” he asked.

”Does she let you smoke indoors?”

”She doesn't let me do anything.” He bowed his head down and lit the cigarette. The flame brought a tiny bit of added illumination to the room. ”I'm free to do as I like.” 

”Please.” 

He ignored her quip and lazily brushed his lengthy hair back. ”Want to play?”

”What?”

Lit cigarette in hand, he pointed at the TV screen.

Rin looked tentatively at the controller, wondering if it might zap her if she touched it.

”You're Japanese, so you'll get the hang of it.”

”Shouldn't you be above stupid stereotypes like that? Being an academician and all?”

”If you don't know how, then-”

Rin snatched the controller from his hand. Fifteen minutes later, her tutor scolded her for being throughly useless at playing video games.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In retrospect, I don't have the slightest fucking idea why this chapter took so long to write.

Alone inside her room, Luvia stared at the residue at the bottom of her teacup. Tiny little shards that had broken off from the dried leaves and been deposited into her cup along with the last bit of tea from her exquisite pot. 

She set the cup down and lifted up the lid on the pot. She leaned over and peered inside, looking at the mess of spent leaves that had scattered on the bottom. Tea leaves had been used fodivination in times past. Could she perhaps find something in the leaves? Any answer, however vague, would have helped her uncertainty. 

”Tch.” Luvia pushed the pot away from herself and shook her head. Not good, she thought. You're truly grasping for straws here, and whatever the hell for? Rin is there. All I need is-

The door to her room flew open and Von Anhalt rushed it. Luvia startled and glared at him, angry at the brazen violation of etiquette. He might just be within his rights to make such a violation if he had very good reason for it, but intruding upon her thoughts and contemplation was out of the question. 

Luvia adjusted the dress around her waist and made sure her expression was one of appropriate severity. ”I trust you have a very good reason to step in unannounced.” Elation on his face was rarely a sign of good things to come, but it at least reassured her with the knowledge that his mood hadn't been poisoned by the exchange yesterday. Now that Rin was enough of an issue on her mind, she didn't need a row with one of her most valuable assets. 

Von Anhalt paid no attention to her stern state of mind. ”Great news, my Lady. Giuliano will hold a grand reception in the palace grounds again.”

”Why now? Can the nobles of the Clocktower not strut around in their gowns some other time? Preferably when the floor is not slick with blood?”

”She intends to normalize relations. A grand ball to celebrate the end of hostilities and the return of stability under her hegemony.” Von Anhalt barely controlled himself, having said his piece. He dragged out the obviously dramatic pause for effect. ”Without you,” he finally added. ”She thinks you're dead.” 

”Or intends to make sure of it,” Luvia said. ”If I do not take part, I might as well be dead. Any support I might still have will evaporate. She is forcing my hand.”

Von Anhalt stepped closer. ”Obviously. She expects to lure is in for a desperate attack. With or without you, she means to lure what remains of us to be destroyed. But... there is another way.”

Luvia pondered the words and then understood. A sly smile spread to her lips and she gave Von Anhalt an approving look. Perhaps he was capable of innovation when pushed into it. ”Bring Miss Tohsaka in.”

He left the room and returned soon, entering the room with Tohsaka Rin behind her.

Rin looked rather puzzled, and had clearly not been told why she'd been summoned. She looked around the room and then settled her gaze on Luvia. ”Uh, you needed me for something?”

”Yes. There was something I wold like to know.” Luvia rested her elbow on the desk and leaned forwards, tilting her head and touching her chin. Why peer into tea leaves when such wonderful omens were in the air?

”I… ahem.” Luvia cleared her throat and hoped that the flush didn't look as obvious as it felt. ”How well do you move in a pair of heels?”

\--

Rin fumbled the steps for the sixth time and lost her balance, shakily regaining it to the best of her ability. Heeled shoes were bad enough; trying to dance in them matched the definition of terror. 

”Again,” Luvia said and took Rin with her again. The floor underneath them was slick with its smoothness. It was the very same chamber Rin's martial potential had been assessed in, and the connection didn't go unnoticed by either of the pair. When Rin asked Luvia about it, Luvia had only replied that if samurai had seen it fit to bother with tea ceremony, Rin should have no issue seeing the value of dancing as a skill a mage ought to possess. 

That might well be the case, Rin thought, buiit was also the worst possible time to try and learn something new. Rin welcomed the distraction and truly appreciated having something else on her mind than the heavy conversations of yesterday. There was guilt for being so indecisive and putting the resolution away, but she couldn't resist the temptation of spending more time with Luvia either. 

Luvia led her as well as she could, doing her best to salvage something from Rin's clumsy performance. Another time Rin would have been very appreciative of the instruction. Not now though – there was far too much on her mind. 

There was little contact between their bodies, yet Rin felt like she might be set afire from head toe whenever she felt the tender brush of one body against other. A tiny bit of friction kept them tied to one another, their bodies touching scarcely at all. Luvia was like a muse with her effortless movement. Rin wanted to go with it, to seize the flow, but the grasp eluded her, always out of her grasp, like Luvia's golden hair whipping with each vigorous turn. 

It was as difficult as anything Rin ever done. The closeness of Luvia's body was a feverish sensation, both in how strong the sensation was and how it disturbed Rin's focused Where to even look when doing her best to follow the steps? In her eyes? Holding the gaze made Rin feel lightheaded. Staring at Luvia's chest didn't feel quite modest enough either, so she bowed her head and stared at her own feet.

”Close your eyes,” Luvia said.

Rin obeyed. For a moment it was possible to ignore the presence so close to her and simply follow the steps and movement. Trusting fully, she was being led into what felt like a flurry of movement. At first, it felt as though every turn was a precarious lurch that might end up with Rin on her face on the floor, but soon the rhythm and pattern began to form in Rin's head. She could follow it – for a short while at least. It came to a rather screeching halt when Rin's chest brushed against something bigger.

Rin's eyes flew open. Luvia was perilously close. A tiny bit more and Rin would feel the breath on her chin. A tiny bit more than that and-

”Ow!” Luvia's voice echoed in the room. The heel of Rin's shoe had just smashed one of Luvia's toes with all the vigor of an energetic dance step. 

”Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to-” Rin let go of Luvia's hand and took a worried step backwards.

”Ah, damn that stings!” Luvia doubled over with pain, squeezing her lips tight. She breathed sharply, almost squealing in pain, cursing in a language that Rin couldn't understand. The rolled R’s convoyed more than a bit of vitriol. 

”I'm so sorry, it's just… I'm too clumsy for any of this.”

”I think… oh dear, is that blood?”

Rin felt ready to faint, she covered her mouth with the palm of her hand. Luvia's toe looked ready to burst. Had she really stepped on it that harshly? The first five times she'd stepped on Luvia's toes had been harmless little incidents, so why did it have the sixth have to be this bad? ”I-”

”No, it's not blood.” Von Anhalt interjected. 

Luvia tried to take a step forward. ”Ouch!” She immediately raised her foot back up, face twisting with awful pain. Standing on one foot, she looked precariously out of balance.

”Let me help,” Rin said. She took Luvia's hand and held her upright.

”No no, it is just… these damned shoes!”

”I know what you mean. Come on, let me.” Rin took Luvia by the waist and guided her towards the seats reserved to the side.

Looking rather embarrassed, Luvia grudgingly accepted Rin's help. ”Please, I can-”

”It's my fault anyway, right? There we go...” Rin helped Luvia sit down on one of the seats and sat down beside her. She'd always though that her martial arts training had left reasonably nimble, yet ballroom dancing was turning out to be another beast entirely – an artistic form invented to make a fool of her. 

”It feels better already,” Luvia said. ”Like I said, these damned shoes make it so much worse.”

”Let me.” Rin bowed down and gently lifted Luvia's foot, taking a hold underneath the shin. With careful precision that would not have looked out of place were she performing surgery, she removed the shoe from Luvia's foot and then, with much less precision, dumped the shoe on the floor. The white, exquisitely smooth sock on Luvia's foot showed no signs of blood. Only the fabric around the big toe had crumpled. 

”I'll take a look,” Rin said.

”That will not be necessary.” Luvia protested, but Rin's pouting face made her change her mind. ”Fine, fine...”

The sock came up under the knee. Rin slipped her fingers inside the band and peeled it down, revealing the smooth skin underneath. The toe didn't look too bad; a bit swollen perhaps, but clearly not broken. That would've been quite the achievement, Rin thought. Breaking your partner's toe while trying to learn to dance. Partner – the word had such a warm ring to it. 

Luvia carefully wriggled the toe up and down. ”Hmmh… I suppose it was about time I had a pedicure anyway.” 

”You won't be getting that from me,” Rin said. She touched the toe, carefully checking what shape it was in. ”It's not broken, but it looks like swelling will take a little while to come down.”

Rin wasn't too sure what she was thinking herself, but what she knew was that she felt really, really guilty for having smashed Luvia's toe. She ran the palm of her hand up and down Luvia's shin, despite knowing that it wouldn't do a thing to help with the swelling. It was impossible to sit idle and do nothing, and the touch warmed her belly with a comfortable sense of happiness. 

That warmth shattered the clinical detachment with which she'd accepted Luvia's toned shin in her lap. The skin of Rin's thighs tingled where Luvia rested her foot, lit afire by the friction between them. The cloth of Rin's skirt was more of a mental barrier than a physical one, and what precious little remained of that gap was shattered when Luvia again stretched her ankle. Rin glanced up at Luvia, still caressing the foot, and knew that Luvia understood. Their shared gaze lasted long, and only the realization of that length made Rin feel the touch of modesty in her chest. 

She looked away nervously and lowered Luvia's foot down. ”So… uh… yeah.”

”Is everything okay?” Luvia asked.

”Yeah, I just-”

Luvia took Rin's hands in hers. ”Your hands are shaking.”

”It's the cold,” Rin tried to explain.

”Cold? A moment earlier I thought you were sweating.” Luvia reached out to touch Rin's cheek. ”Your cheek feels warm.”

”Ah… well… so do you.” Rin felt herself blush from head to toe. Considering that state of her mind, it really wasn't the worst she could have blurted out, but that didn't make her feel like any less of an awkward dork. Luvia looked positively bemused, and Rin would have been happy enough to see the earth split and swallow her whole.

The earth remained firm and cold beneath her feet, all the more colder because of the hand on the cheek. Rin would have turned her head away, but couldn't. She forgot why she would have. 

For a short moment, everything made perfect sense. 

Then Luvia pulled back from the kiss and it all felt like a little too much. 

Yet, there was no place she'd rather be when at her wit's end—no other person she'd rather figure it all out with.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Six months. That's at least five months longer than I wanted this to take, but such is life. Anyway, I hit a bit of a rough spot that cost me three or four months of progress. Insomnia, to be specific. I needed some time off to sort myself out and recover. I guess I'm back again. Here's another chapter of Clocktower. I also have another oneshot almost ready to be published.

Fear obeys the mind, but that did Luvia no good. No matter what she tried, she couldn't get her mind to obey. She could shut out the hum of the wheels rolling against the asphalt, the jolts softened by the limousine's state-of-the-art suspension, and even the artificial warmth that was so much greater than the chilly evening outside. None of it mattered when she couldn't shut out the presence beside her.

Rin's breathed with calm. Her eyes were closed, and Luvia stole the moment to admire her. Oh, I really do not need this right now, Luvia thought to herself. Should I have told her to follow in the next car? That would have been a bit too callous, considering yesterday.

”Everything okay?” Rin asked. 

”Do you remember the day when we met?” 

Rin looked rather bemused by the question, and was quick to reply. ”It wasn't that long ago, and I don't we're at the point where we start to reminisce about old times yet.”

A tiny blush developed on Luvia's face. ”You… you are correct, yes. Oh dear, I really made a sordid mess of that affair back then, did I not? Ambushed and interrogated you like you were some lowlife from the east.”

”You changed your tune when you got to know me, so don't worry about it. Most seem to still think I am one. Why bring it up now?”

Luvia dusted off the fold of her dress above the thigh and turned her head away. Yes, why bring it up now? Why not enjoy the last few moments of guaranteed peace she might ever have with Rin? ”I was in something of a hurry that day, which may well have contributed to my handling you somewhat roughly.” 

”Hey, it's all forgiven now. No need to dwell on it.”

Luvia nodded to acknowledge Rin's words, but continued her story. ”I was on my way to an event similar to the one tonight. Another occasion that I can only describe as haughty and formal, frigid, disgusting.”

”Doesn't sound pleasant.”

”Few things about being a mage do sound pleasant. I bring it up because… Well, I…”

Rin leaned forwards, looking attentive – like she cared. Luvia chided herself and her own thinking; the difficulty she felt opening up. She cares, Luvia thought. She doesn't only look the part.

”I was afraid,” Luvia said. ”But I went, knowing full well that I might not come back. In a way, I suppose, I hoped not to come back.”

”You did?” Rin asked. 

”The years before I became to know you – they were not always kind to me, but now, I am even more afraid. I am doing it again and taking you with me to that same peril.”

”You're thinking nonsense,” Rin said with such brash confidence that Luvia was taken aback.

”What?”

”I wouldn't let you do this alone.” 

But why, Luvia thought to ask. The privilege, pain, and duty of being the Edelfelt heir belonged to her alone. Sharing it was irresponsible, weak. No-one else deserved such a burden to bear. 

”I should not have said a word,” Luvia chided herself. Opening up now had been the greatest mistake. She could've buried it all as she had so many times before. She could've been calm, numb to the fear and pain, alone; dignified and perfect on the outside. The pursuit of that external perfection, forcing herself into the mold of an Edelfelt heir, had made her inside wither away. 

With Rin there, she could not pretend to be perfect. That felt like another failure, but her perspective soon shifted. There was a person in the world to whom she'd confessed her own humanity, who knew that she was more than the result of an eugenics project. A failure at that too, Luvia thought, but the thought only made her smile. She'd sought reprieve for years and now she'd found it: a person with whom she could be a failure.

Of course, that wasn't all of it. Rin was more than that. So much more that Luvia's mind was already occupied thinking of all the new opportunities that Rin's presence opened to her. 

Ah, my mind is wandering again, Luvia thought. We are not out of this yet. She raised her head and looked outside. 

Dusk had set. Blood would flow.

Soon the limousine emerged lightless from the night to the entrance of the grounds, materializing from the night like a ship from the moonless sea. Artifical balls of light hung in the night, marking the way towards the manor in the distance in loosely spaced pairs. 

Rin was about to push open the door as Luvia interrupted her.

”Rin?”

”What is it?” Rin asked with her hand still on the handle. 

For a moment, Luvia hesitated, afraid and unsure whether her idea was a good one at all.

”I… never mind,” she said and reached for Rin. The moment was just long enough for a brief kiss. Long enough that Luvia wouldn't regret not seizing the moment, and short enough that she didn't feel herself be carried away be the emotion. ”Let's not make that our last,” Luvia said.

”Promise?”

”I promise. Now, shall we?” 

Rin pushed the door open. It looked like utter madness. The light clearly lit Luvia's face for anyone to see, for anyone to make an attempt. The edge of the darkness on both left and right was like a step into the abyss, but even staring into it Luvia sensed no threat to her. Not a single sentry stood guard. One guest, suited and sloppily leaning against a lonely tree out of the light's reach, fixed his suit and then squinted his eyes at the sight. 

Luvia looked towards him. She saw no more than the outline, of the dark figure, but she knew that he understood. 

Rin glanced at Luvia and then turned her gaze to the figure. The tense, still moment passed briefly and the pair moved forwards again.

”You felt it,” Luvia said as they headed forwards. They soon passed by another group of mages, impossible to tell the alliegiance of, and again no words were said, not one sudden movement made.

”Yes,” Rin said.

”Funny, is it not? All these people here celebrating my death, yet when I do make an entrance, all eyes are on you. In a way… I am almost jealous.”

”I'll swap with you any moment you want,” Rin replied. She looked a little shaky, but kept her position by Luvia's side with brisk steps. 

”Next time,” Luvia replied to reassure Rin.

Like so many other conspiracies, the one assembled against Luvia was only held together by a shared desire to see someone dead – preferably by someone else's hand, with the opportunity to watch from a safe distance without receiving a knife in one's back in return. They had come together with a shared desire to cut off the head of the beast so that the rest would die, but now, none of what had seemed so obvious before seemed to apply. 

The hydra had sprouted a new head. 

All eyes were on Rin; a sight unseen for decades, but remembered with dread. Where Nagaev and others before him had stood as a reminder of the Edelfelt's catasthrophic loss in Fuyuki, now stood a young lady of Luvia's stature. Blue and red, blonde and dark, the old dignity of the Clocktower and the new blood coursing into it. They'd been told that Luviagelita Edelfelt was either dead or driven off, never to return, yet here she was, making a sheer mockery of Giuliano's prestige. The realization was clear: either Giuliano would respond, or the conflict would end here with Luvia's stunning coup. 

Luvia remembered the longing gaze in her grandmother's eye when she'd recounted old tales from a time when there'd been two Edelfelt sisters, not one. They feared her like they had in better times, when two sisters, though despising one another, could chill the blood with a single glance. 

”Move closer,” Luvia whispered to Rin who closed the distance. 

Here was the young woman who they would have expected to track down with bloodhounds and find holed up in some secluded fortress or cave. They would have only needed to act, but who first? Who would be the one to take the first step towards her and go for the jugular? Who would be the first to fall so that the ones following might have a chance to succeed?

Their time to decide ran out almost as fast as their courage. Walking along the lit pathway as if on a bridge of light, the pair soon reached the building. The grand door had been thrown open,. Luvia couldn't help but think that the door had only been opened so that the inside wouldn't rot. 

But the way wasn't quite clear. There stood enough guests, looking like they'd not even noticed Luvia yet, that she couldn't pass with Rin by her side. As she stopped, the attention turned back to her, and her proud entrance turned into a standoff. 

Von Anhalt approached from behind. Luvia knew that he would've been following out of sight in the darkness. He stopped by Luvia's left side, behind by a step or so, and looked at the sparse crowd as casually as a man picking himself the right tie to wear in the morning. 

”Did anyone follow us? Luvia turned to ask him.

”One tried to,” he replied. ”I see there's no red carpet. She did always lack for tactfulness.” 

Luvia suppressed a shiver. She'd not noticed a thing in the darkness, nor had she tried to, but the quiet with which he'd disposed of the interloper sickened her. She'd never learned to stomach how death could be so effortless and quiet. 

”Not to mention a certain lack of presence.” Luvia eyed the crowd before her and felt a distinct sense of worry. She'd fully accepted the possibility of having to fight befoe she made it inside the palace itself and had at the very least expected to see Giuliano raise her head, but neither had happened.”Shall we?” Luvia turned to Rin.

”Gladly.”

The onrush of gold and crystal almost blinded the pair. Chandeliers spread the light all around, where it then bounced from the dazzling gold leaf present on nearly every surface. Luvia tried to focus her eyes against the menacing light and find something inside the massive hall fix her eyes on as a point of reference. She found nothing. The entire hall was empty, dazzlingly bright and, suddenly, eerily silent. Mirrors lined the walls, placed so that wherever she looked, she saw an endless corridor that caught her gaze and felt as if it struck at her very soul. Like a diver that's lost sense of direction, she fumbled about in her steps and barely kept herself standing.

”Rin?” Luvia turned about.

”I… what?” Rin asked. She looked fatigued, her eyes still and unresponsive in her head, focused on Luvia. 

Terror lashed at Luvia; the feeling was like having the foundation of her soul shattered. Strength of will and body alike seeped out of her as she recognized the dull, detached look in Rin's eyes. 

Rin fell.

Luvia caught Rin's limp body in her arms and slowly eased them both down to the floor. Mumbling incoherently, she cradled the weak, unresponsive body in her arms, holding Rin's head and vainly seeking the spark of consciousness in Rin's empty eyes.

”Joachim!” Luvia screamed towards the door they'd passed through only moments ago. It was shut. Her voice echoed inside the hall; the only sign of life beside her heartbeat. 

Panic bit at her veins with cold, sharp teeth.

Terror crawled over her skin, but she couldn't let go of the body in her arms lest she lose that too. Terror gnawe at the edges of her vision, but there was nowhere to look. In her arms lay the body, and mirrors in every direction looked back at her, accusing her, condemning her. Closing her eyes only brought the pain back.

Failure hurt.


	16. Chapter 16

Luvia held Rin's limp body in her lap and touched Rin's cold, unmoving face. She had to deny that the body in her lap had ever contained life and look upon it like she would at a valuable jewel. Cold, pristine, beautiful, and valuable, but utterly devoid of life. Only another form of earthly wealth that Luvia had enough to be sick of.

Low, heavy steps brought her back from the brink of sorrow and spilled adrenaline into her veins to wipe away emotion. The sound echoed around a corner at the far end of the empty hall.

Then the beast stepped into view.

Quadrupedal, horned. Its head most resembled a bull, but every proportion had been twisted from the real thing. The eyes were of deep purple; the horns, long as a grown man's arm, swallowed up the light. The tip was near imossible to track. Luvia had no doubt they were sharp enough to pass through armor.

The creature bellowed. A strong smell and incorporeal sense of the grave spread into the hall, smothering the will to resist. This was the smell of the creature and the lives it had taken. Everyone who fought against it would be added to their ranks. Yes, that would scare off a scavenger, Luvia thought.

Too bad she wasn't one.

Was this all Giuliano would give her? More poison, trickery, smoke and mirrors; a familiar to do the dirty work? She truly has me confused for a scavenging hyena, Luvia thought. _I'd welcome her striking me down with her hand. A fitting end to this contest of wills, and to the victor would go the spoils – whatever they are anymore. No. I shall make the bitch dirty her hands even if it means throwing my dying body against her._

Luvia performed a mocking, exaggerated curtsy. Lowering her head only slightly, she looked up from underneath her brows and smirked, holding her skirt to provoke the beast. Whatever consciousness inhabited that body, she wouldn't miss a chance to make a mockery of it.

The beast roared, but whether it was out of indignation, bloodlust, or something else, Luvia couldn't tell. Heavy footfalls shattered the marble as the creature charged. Luvia focused her eye on the creature's snout. The horns were difficult to track, but by knowing where the snout was, she could avoid the horns. She felt the wall behind her, stopping her from retreating backwards, and smiled.

Using reinforcement, she leapt up in the air, certain that the best wouldn't be able to stop before the wall. Simple bloodlust would spell the creature's doom as it impaled its horns against the wall and trapped itself.

The creature didn't stop until it had gotten well past the wall. Heavy chunks of wood flew around and dust of broken plaster spread into the air. Half the wall had crumbled from the strength of the impact, and the hole reached up all the way to the roof.

So much for that childish plan, Luvia thought.

The beast wouldn't fall for the same trick a second time. Luvia charged forwards to strike. Obsidian moved in the corner of her vision, and she dodged down low out of the way of the creature's sideways swipe, close enough that she felt moist, disgusting breath against her face. As the horns came down and shattered the floor where she'd just stood, cracking the stone with a teeth-shaking blast, Luvia planted her hand right above the beast's head and used it as a support to flip herself above the beast.

A maddened roar beat against her body. Her balance was shaky at best; too shaky to attempt a proper strike at the base of the skull. A familiar's anatomy might have nothing to do with that of the true creature, but it was all she had. Swaying dangerously, she held her right hand with the left and aimed for the base of the skull.

”Gandr!”

The blast sunk into the hide and faded away.

”Gandr!”

The shot went wide to the left.

There was no time for the third one. She'd have to catch her balance enough to leap off the being and open the distance again. Her left foot slipped, and she clutched at the creature's muscled, fierce back with her right to have some control as she fell down. The creature, too acted on mere instinctual bloodlust, driven mad by being humiliated so.

Obsidian flashed again; she was too close.

Too close for the beast, as the shaft of the horn struck sideways against her and sent her flying. The sharp tip pierced only air.

Instinct saved her. Luvia reinforced her arms and legs, curling herself up as much as she could to protect herself from the impact. She heard the crash as much as she felt it. The fall and roll against the floor was silent and all the more painful for it.

Adrenaline blocked most of the pain. Her hands and feet trembling from the shock, she forced herself to her feet and saw the creature widen the hole she'd been smashed through. Falling dust and plaster soiled the dark hide and marked it with spots of dirty gray.

The horns had been dirtied. Fearful, deadly weapons that they were, they frightened Luvia, but she also understood how they might be her only chance to survive. Was drawing the creature away from where she'd left Rin's body, or was the creature was driving her away from Rin? Von Anhalt was outside, but the fight might have gone against him. Tearing down any of the walls could save her, but it might as well doom her. There was no need to reach for that wildcard of an option yet.

Yes, those sharp horns might well gore her, but she had plans before letting that happen. If she could catch a hold of them, she could use the leverage to twist the beast's head, no matter how unnaturally strong it was, and where the head went, the body would follow.

She'd take the bull by the horns.

 

\---

 

Her lidded eyes weighed like lead and she struggled to open them, feeling the strain on her chest. All in vain. Darkness all around, and the cold, hard surface beneath her.

Where and who was she?

”I would expect you to know as much,” said a distant voice.

Memories returned. The palace, Luvia…

”You shall not mourn her absence.”

The voice was like the voice of God. What it said, she felt true.

Rin opened her eyes. She recognized the hall she had stepped into with Luvia. The space all around her was familiar, but twisted, uncanny. The mirrors lining the walls were gone. In their place lingered the abyss; deep, endless holes in space. The golden leaf covering all the pillars sweated with moisture, flowing down like golden oil. Rin turned her head towards the roof and drew terrified breath as she saw the fresco above her head come to life.

Fuyuki burned. Seething, violet flame rose towards the sky and licked at the roof. The flame spread sideways, then downwards, reaching down the pillars like entangling roots.

”So that is what you ran away from,” the voice said.

She looked at the horror as if through the eyes of another. The strength of the vision held her in its grip, appearing so immeasurably powerful. There was no fighting it. To witness it was to realize the folly of resisting. Where it existed, free will could not.

The flames reached down to the floor and surrounded her all around. Like the rising tide they rushed at her, unyielding, all-consuming. In a single heartbeat's time they'd reach her; In a single breath, they'd slither into her lungs and scorch her insides.

”It need not be so,” the voice said. With a thunderclap the flames were blown out and severed from the fuel they needed.

Rin opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She looked down at her hands, the arms left exposed by her dress, and saw the sapphire-blue lines on them. Fingers trembling, she traced the line from the base of her thumb above the elbow. It ended there, but she knew it would only dive deeper. Breathing in, it snaked deeper like barbed wire.

”It is all so painfully obvious.”

The veins pulsed with a vicious purple and brightened to a lighter shade of indigo.

”So much more obvious than what she did to you.”

She. The word finally gave Rin a bearing by which to orient her mind. Luvia. Where was Luvia? What had happened?

Black mist coalesced in front of Rin's eyes, taking the shape of a woman. First the torso, then the limbs. No longer transparent, the form had color. Pale skin clothed in an exquisite dress colored by the hue of purple flame. Giuliano.

”Welcome, my guest.” she said and extended her arm in an orator's gesture. ”Welcome to the Grand Ball.”

Rin looked on in a stupor, still struggling to make sense of the situation.

”Now, what shall it be?” Giuliano clasped her hands and circled Rin at a wide arc. Her footsteps were completely silent. Each of her steps let out a ripple along the surface of polished marble. The tremor passed up Rin's legs and spine all the way to the head. ”It has been so dreadfully long since I last had a distinguished guest. I neither cherish nor appreciate your presence, but I shall honor you as I have all who have come to pass. ”

”Thesleff, Di Cossimo, Van Leyden… Most would be shocked to have their name mentioned along with yours, Tohsaka Rin. A great many have come here to be the guests of my family. They were treated to a feast of their lifetime, one which will change the most stubborn mind, and they left here wiser than before. But those who wouldn't understand... suffice it to say that their dance took a turn for the macabre.

Rin's lips moved. It was a horrid sensation – the relief that she could speak, but knowing that it was only by the permission of another.

”It is all so painfully obvious. The garish poison in your veins and the bind in which I hold you, but do not take offence at my lack of subtlety.”

Giuliano extended her arm towards Rin and like a puppet, Rin's body performed the gesture in kind. The first beats of a sullen, deathly waltz blared out and the room transformed again. Moonlit, polished stone shone bright all the way to the horizon.

They were in the middle of a crowd, dancers all around. Rin's gaze darted around to find a familiar face, desperate to see Luvia, but not one face among the crowd was familiar to her. Alien, sullen faces, their eyes sunk deep into their skulls, their skin unnatural and empty of life's color. All held together and animated by something unnatural, and in their midst, arranged in the very middle of their formation, stood Tohsaka Rin.

The dance began. Pairs, irregular groups, even single participants all moved along the floor where scarcely a single piece of free space remained. Their movement was hideously fast, perfectly hitting together, with some pairs or groups halting to inertialess stops to let others pass. It was a perfect machine, like the bowels of an intricate, masterpiece clock. A world where every piece moves as it has been designed to, where not one bit is removed without upsetting all the others – the moonlit world of the Clocktower.

”So clever, but so unwise. If only wisdom was a gift I could impart to you. Now then… where shall I slot you in? It is so terribly difficult to arrange for a single guest, but pairs are always welcome.”

Giuliano stood aside and from the crowd, walking steadily but somehow dodging every single person moving around her, Luvia emerged.

”Luvia?” Rin stood in shock.

This was another person's idea of Luvia: an unloving, vicious image of cool, untarnished and perfect beauty - too inhumane to match the reality Rin knew.

The well-healed cut beneath Luvia's eye wasn't there.

The being vanished at a single wave of Giualino's hand and she spoke again. ”Did she tell you childish dreams of ending old ways and living happily ever after? You are not the first one she ruined, nor the second. First she ruined herself, then she ruined the one who listened to her lies, and now she tries to ruin you as well. I do not peddle fantasies or delusions. I have invited you here so that we may come to the terms of your submission and service to me. You shall be my vassal, be mated to a suitable bloodline of my choosing, and your children shall be proud mages not one bit beneath their peers.”

”My children?” The thought was disgusting. Had she truly been raised so unlike a mage that the offers only sounded like nightmarish fates she'd do everything to avoid? Had mother, too, been sold away like Giuliano now offered?

”With a carefully chosen husband, they would pass for properly bred. I am not devious enough to claim that you could dream of the same, of the old blood accepting you as one of their own. Choose! To walk the path of a Mage is to make difficult decisions.”

As if you might know about difficult decisions, Rin thought. My entire life is the result of one, when father had to choose between me and-

Sakura. No.

”Ah… of course.” Giuliano's voice swelled up with smug pride. ”Of course there would be two. Vermin do spawn so fast. The fruit of Eleonora's womb… two generations past, her potency can still be seen.”

”Stop with the nonsense! You'll never get Sakura!”

”Were you parents too ashamed to admit where the Tohsaka's sudden surge in power came from? The third Grail war in Fuyuki. It was the only event to ever halt the Edelfelt's ascendance, so we studied it. There were two sisters, Charlotta and Eleonora, who took part. Because of their pride, the Edelfelts could only ever believe that Eleonora had perished, not betrayed them. The fruit fell from the tree and it fell into fertile ground indeed. Shame it did not land a little bit father.”

Rin's mind quaked. The use of gemstones, reinforcement – gandr. The pieces didn't fall into place; they jabbed through her like knives into a carcass.

”Can you feel it? All your life you have looked in the mirror, but only know you recognize what looks back at you.”

”I… I'm not-” Rin tried to shout, but the will left her the moment she heard her own voice waver.

”I, I, I, Hahaha!” Giuliano's laughter was cool and sharp. ”If you only heard yourself, girl. You are only returning what they once lost. The incestuous blood in your veins brought you here and shrieks to be one again with that whore – as we always knew it would.”

Rin quaked, trembled. The cold logic cut at the heart of what she'd had thought dear and obvious. It couldn't be so. I'm my own person, Rin thought.

”Naive child, you shall serve me. I do take pity on you, for unlike Luviageita, you could have never known any better. But remember, if the mind refuses to obey, The Flesh can be made to serve.”

Never. No, there were things worse than death. It didn't take a mage to know that, and it hadn't taken magecraft for humans to inflict those fates.

”Correct. In time you could learn. First you shall learn that the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Choose – how much do you wish to suffer?”

Not one bit by your hand, Rin thought. I'll burn this all down if I must. I'll…

A wave of energy crashed over Rin. Not pain, not fear, but a more devious feeling that undermined her resolve. The shift was easy to notice. Her intellect shill cut as sharp as it did, no matter how much emotions varied. For the first time, she felt and noticed the influence that earlier on had been so subtle and easy to miss.

Rin understood: all of it was external. Giuliano controlled all of it. Squeezed painfully by the jaws of terror, she raised her head and looked at Giuliano. There was no response. Every last thought had been read, but not this. Why is that, noble lady, Rin thought. Why so terribly quiet all of a sudden? Did the monkey figure out your little trick faster than you thought she would?

I've got you now.

The silence and Gialiano's unmoving face told Rin all she needed to know. Giuliano still tried, clearly looking for the string from which to pull, but her movement only resembled the nervous fidgeting of a coward who'd been found out.

”One last time-” Giuliano began.

Never.

”Listen, you little girl!”

I'm no little girl.

”Yellow monkey! This is my realm, my world, and you will do as I command!”

It is your world. Your dream. Not mine. For that, I reject it.

”ENOUGH!”

\--

Rin woke in silence. Her eyes scanned around, looking into the darkness. The cold floor hurt her side. This wasn't the hall she'd stepped into with Luvia. A charged smell hung in the air, the smell of metallic dust, but the dark, damp air was clear. The space was small. 

She wasn't alone. There was another presence in the room with her. Luvia?

No.

Standing up hurt. Just bending her knee underneath her to push herself up hurt as though the joint had never been meant to turn that way. Every muscle felt spent, heavy, almost meaningless, but she forced them to obey as she pushed herself up with her palms on the floor.

Though her feet trembled, Rin stood upright, breathed in the cold, dust-laced air, and turned her head towards Giuliano. A stupid, moronic smile spread to Rin's lips despite her knowing how out of place that sensation was. The emotional triumph of victory intoxicated her. How insane could a moment be?

”I beat you,” Rin said, still smiling.

Giuliano stood still, her arms by her sides. Her presence was weak now, nothing like it had been in the dreams, like the husk of a great building that had burned down. She looked calm, almost eerily so, and turned her head away. ”My magecraft, yes.”

And what else was there, Rin thought to herself.

Giuliano reached behind her back and drew the pistol.

In the flash of the muzzle Rin saw the eerie light of her nightmare. Too quick. The fall was harder than ever before, with no descent into the nightmare to block the pain. Her head fell limply and hit the floor with a blow strong enough to wipe away the memory of it.

It was curious how so much pain could begin with so little.

The bullet, made of lead encased in a copper jacket, weighing some eight grams in total, had split one of the ribs under her left breast, torn the lung like a spearhead slicing into weak, wet cloth, and then, tumbling over itself, had shattered another rib and passed out of her back. The second one had gone somewhere lower, but it was impossible to say where. She couldn't feel the point where the pain was concentrated. It was everywhere.

She still had a chance if she could stand up.

She could not.

The first breaths after the blow were almost normal; neither her mind nor body understood the damage. That ended when pain flashed through her like a bolt of thunder. The noise that came from her throat had been meant as a cry of agony, but resembled nothing like it. A weak croak passed her lips.

Shaky adrenaline coursing through her veins screamed at her to get up, to strike and throw herself at her opponent. If only she could stand up, she would. The floor was frigid and harsh beneath her hip, and Rin tried to push herself up with her left hand – it weakened with every attempt. Her abdomen burned.

There was no concept for it, no word or idea she could understand and fathom to pass. Her breaths were quick, cut short by the pain of trying to breathe in, never giving her quite enough air, forcing her to take another sharp intake to quell the burning need in her one intact lung. Her feet twitched on the slippy floor, sliding ineffectually back and forth, while her heels trod air. The sides of her shoes squeaked with friction.

It hurt.

Rin raised her head and stared down the barrel of a gun. Noxious fumes spread forth. Would she have time to see the flash? Would she have time to feel?

”Ah, the folly of youth,” Giuliano said. There was no semblance of triumphant joy on her face. She approached Rin, holding the pistol at the ready.

The floor below Rin's back was slick with blood. Heart heart pulsed with terror and sent more precious, irreplaceable drops to the marble floor. More and more pain with every breath.

”How does it feel? Hot lead stifling your breath and letting your essence flow? There are thirteen more in the magazine.”

There wasn't enough air in Rin's lung for her to reply; blood took up too much space. A blind anger dulled the pain and she managed a bloody grunt. She wouldn't be dictated to like this. Never. Not while one bit of her body-

The shockwave from the next shot struck against her face. The pain tore her left arm to bits – everything below the shoulder was afire. She took hurried breaths, but they only brought the pain upwards into her chest. Her feet barely moved, the left arm hung limp. Her right arm was the only good bit of her left, and she weakly tried to clasp at the wound in her left.

How could it last?

Her ragged breathing echoed from the walls. Her ears rang with such intensity that could only barely discern where whichever sound came from. A dull pounding struck at her temples and somewhere above a low thunder rolled.

Giuliano glanced upwards, parting her lips. The noise died down and she lowered the muzzle of the gun. Her feet tapped against marble, taking care to circle the growing puddle of blood as she approached Rin.

”Oh… The second shot went lower than I had planned. I could have at least used your body had that shot not gone awry.”

Thunder struck again. Above their heads the fresco of the sky began to crack. Flakes and chunks of plaster rained down and broke into dust upon the floor. Another blast shook the roof, walls, and the floor, and then the image of the sky split apart. Large chunks of stone fell and split into smaller pieces, filling the air with dust and sending small bits of rock towards Rin like shrapnel.

Unearthly light shone from the figure in the middle of the rubble. Dizzy and lightheaded, Rin thought she saw a valkyrie, but the bull-headed, horned creature on the floor was no heavenly steed. It lay on its back, convulsing and twitching, its chest split asunder by a blow from the woman above it.

Luviagelita Edelfelt drew her arm out of the creature's crumpled chest and flung aside the still-beating unnatural heart. Blood coated her arm. Not one hair on her head was in order, with patches of dark, drying blood splashed among the golden blonde.

Twelve shots rang out. Rin no longer heard the last few, nor the hammer of the pistol striking on an empty chamber. She only saw the panicked finger snatching the trigger.

A burst of air washed over Rin and spread the blood around the smooth floor beneath her. Another gust followed as Luvia crashed against Giuliano. The arm holding the pistol snapped in Luvia's grip, yet the hand clung on the pistol like a broken branch of a tree holds on to its leaves.

A piercing, shrill cry of pain. Was it her own?

Luvia's eyes now turned to Rin.

Kill her.

Unconsciousness stole another moment. Rin awoke to being carried somewhere, rising upwards.

Yes, this was real. The pain made it certain. Death would be close, she knew, and with it came a comfortable, calm certainty.

More forms passed by the at the edges of her vision. For it to have a centre would've taken strength she no longer had. Far away, she heard a voice. She remembered the chamber and the deep, vicious voices of the nightmare. This wasn't one of them. It was familiar to her, yet the language was alien – ancient. A clear, strong voice, full of cold anger and the wisdom of ages long before a single word was written down.

An elegy for a soul, but whose? No, not hers.


	17. Chapter 17

The wooden walls gave the inside of the cabin a cozy sense of ease. The window above Rin's bed let in little light. Only the brightest stars remained in the sky; the rest had disappeared into the purple of the polar twilight.

Luvia placed down the novel she'd been reading, crossed her legs, and turned her head to Rin. The wooden chair creaked. ”Nightmares again?” Luvia asked.

”You're up early.” Rin flicked on the light on the nightstand.

”I worry too much to sleep in.”

Rin pushed herself up to a sitting position on the bed, clutching the blanket close to her chest. Sighing, she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. ”I woke up at some point, not sure when, but I fell asleep again.”

”Was it the same dream again?”

”No… the one where you sang. Luvia… what was it about?”

Luvia glanced at the cover of her book, smiling thoughtfully. ”Pain,” she said.

”Hers?”

”Pain might be a rather narrow definition for what she experienced, but yes.” Luvia stood up from her chair, leaving the book by the table. Resting her hand on Rin's knee, she sat beside her on the bed.

"Luvia, there's something I was thinking about."

"Hm?"

"Professor Velvet."

"What about him?"

"He tutors both of us, so he knows the contents of our crests. Wouldn't he... you know, maybe mention it to you that mine had a lot of similarities with yours?"

Luvia shook her head and turned her head away. "That dim-witted academician... I shall kill him."

"If you'd known, would you have-"

"Yes." Luvia rested her hand on the back of Rin's neck, caressing the hair and leaning closer. "I would have."

They met halfway for a tender kiss while Luvia's hand slid up Rin's side. Rin let out a little sound, like a hum.

Startled, Luvia pulled back. ”Oh, does it hurt? I am so sorry I-”

”No, no,” Rin said. ”It feels… really nice.”

A lighthearted and lightheaded pause followed.

”Uh, Luvia?”

”Hm?”

”Umm... I kind of thought we'd go someplace warm.”

”Is it cold in here?”

”No, I mean-”

”Then we are someplace warm,” Luvia said, caressing Rin's cheek.

Outside the window the air was cold. Inside it was warm, and beneath the blanket it was warmer still.

”Should I switch the light off?” Luvia asked.

”It's good the way it is.”

And it was good.

 

_The End_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah. For all it's faults, flaws, and the fact that it took me a year and a half, well, it's over. To be honest, I only began writing because I knew how important it would be to finish, and if I didn't start serializing the fic online, I would never finish it. Now that I'm done, I'm not sure what to think. Maybe the next one will be better? Maybe?
> 
> I do hope so.
> 
> So, what's next? Hell if I know. I feel like I'm done with Fate. I have zero interest in F/GO which seems to be all the rage these days, and besides that, there's nothing I'm really looking forward to when it comes to Fate. If the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files LN & Manga gets adapted into an anime, I might be interested in that. Take all of this with a grain of salt, though, as I have been known to swear that I'll never work with a particular fandom or topic again, only to come back to it after I get some kind of new idea. I do have some ideas for rewriting this fic, but for the most part I think there's no point spending time rewriting this story when I could be writing another one. Still, that's one possible course of action if I'm unable to come up with an idea for a new longfic. Ah well. If anyone's itching for more Luvia/Rin content, take a look at TungstenCat on FFN. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, whoever you are. Drop a comment if you like. Don't be afraid to leave criticism if you feel like there's something I could've done better. I know there is, but I can't know what exactly to fix before people point it out. Even if I never do rewrite of fix this fic, I'll at least keep your words in mind in the future.


End file.
